- Too Busy Thinking About My Baby
Infobox Single
Name = Too Busy Thinking About My Baby
Artist =Marvin Gaye
from Album =M.P.G.
B-side = "Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)"
Released = April 1969
Format = 7" single
Recorded =Hitsville USA (Studio A); 1969
Genre = Soul
Length = 2:55
Label = Tamla
T 54181
Writer =Norman Whitfield
Barrett Strong
Janie Bradford
Producer = Norman Whitfield
Last single = "I Heard It Through the Grapevine "
(1968)
This single = "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby"
(1969)
Next single = "That's the Way Love Is "
(1969)"Too Busy Thinking About My Baby" is a
Motown song written byNorman Whitfield ,Barrett Strong , andJanie Bradford . The song was first recorded byThe Temptations as a track on their 1966 album "Gettin' Ready ".Eddie Kendricks sings lead on the recording, which was produced by Whitfield.Three years later, Motown artist
Marvin Gaye recorded a cover version of "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby" as a follow-up single to his 1968 hit "I Heard It Through the Grapevine ", another Whitfield/Strong composition. Whitfield produced Gaye's version as well, which featured background vocals byThe Andantes . The song's lyrics feature the male narrator discussing how he has "no time to discuss weather" or "think about what money can buy", because when he thinks about his woman, "I ain't got time for nothing else".In terms of chart success, "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby" was Gaye's second biggest hit of the 1960s, after "I Heard It Through the Grapevine". "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby" peaked at number four on the
Billboard Hot 100 in theUnited States , and remained at the number one position on "Billboard's" Black Singles Chart for six consecutive weeks, fromJune 7 untilJuly 18 1969 , with sales totaling 1.5 million copies. Fact|date=March 2008 The single was the first single from Gaye's 1969 studio album "M.P.G. ".In 1995
The Manhattan Transfer covered the song withPhil Collins . This version reached 27 on theHot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart in the United States."Too Busy Thinking About My Baby" was later covered by British pop group, Steps for
ITV sMotownMania . It was the B-side for their 2001 single, "It's The Way You Make Me Feel".Credits
Temptations version
* Lead vocals by
Eddie Kendricks
* Background vocals byDavid Ruffin , Eddie Kendricks,Melvin Franklin , Paul Williams, andOtis Williams
* Instrumentation byThe Funk Brothers Marvin Gaye version
* Lead Vocals by
Marvin Gaye
* Background Vocals byThe Andantes : Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow and Louvain Demps
* Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.