My Baby (Temptations song)

Infobox Single
Name = My Baby
Artist = The Temptations
from Album = The Temptin' Temptations
B-side = "Don't Look Back"
Released = September 30 1965
(1st pressing)
October 30 1965
(2nd pressing)
Format = 7" single
Recorded = Hitsville USA (Studio A); August 4 & August 11, 1965
Genre = Soul
Length = 3:05
Label = Gordy
G 7047
Writer = Smokey Robinson
Ronald White
Pete Moore
Producer = Smokey Robinson
Last single = "Since I Lost My Baby"
(1965)
This single = "My Baby" / "Don't Look Back"
(1965)
Next single = "Get Ready"
(1966)

"My Baby" is a 1965 hit single recorded by The Temptations for the Gordy (Motown) label. Written by Miracles members Smokey Robinson, Ronnie White, and Pete Moore and produced by Robinson, the song was a top 20 pop hit in the United States, and a top 5 hit on the R&B charts.

An extension of the theme from the group's #1 hit "My Girl", which had been released the previous December, "My Baby" features The Temptations, with David Ruffin on lead, bragging about the qualities of a special lady. Ruffin praises his woman's hairstyles ("hair soft like a baby lamb/and I love to run my fingers through it") and personality ("the gold in her personality/could set Fort Knox to shame"), and hopes that "she digs me the way I am/but if I have to change/you know I'm gona do it for my baby".

"My Baby" was a notable attempt to create an uptempo danceable number for the Temptations; all of their previous Top 20 hits to this point had been either ballads or mid-tempo numbers. The single immediately following "My Baby", "Get Ready", followed the same plan, and was produced with an even faster tempo and a brassier arrangement.

Unusually for Temptaitons singles, "My Baby's" b-side, the Paul Williams-led "Don’t Look Back", was a minor hit in its own right, becoming a top 20 R&B hit and serving for several years as the Temptations' live-show closing number.

Credits

* Lead Vocals by David Ruffin
* Background Vocals by Eddie Kendricks, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams, and Otis Williams
* Written by William "Smokey" Robinson , Ronald White, and Warren Moore
*Produced by Smokey Robinson
* Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers.