Bye Bye Baby (Mary Wells song)

Infobox Single
Name = Bye Bye Baby
Artist = Mary Wells
from Album = Bye Bye Baby I Don't Want to Take a Chance
Format = 7" single
Released = December 1960
Recorded = United Sound Studios, Detroit, Michigan, 1960
Genre = Soul
Length = 3:00
Label = Motown
M 1003
Writer = Mary Wells
Producer = Berry Gordy
This single = "Bye Bye Baby"
(1960)
Next single = "I Don't Want to Take a Chance"
(1961)

"Bye Bye Baby" is the debut single by R&B singer Mary Wells, released in December of 1960 on the Motown label. The song was one of Motown's earliest hit singles and showcased a much rougher vocal than what would come from the singer during her later years.

History

Recording

In 1960, 17-year-old Mary Wells was a nightclub singer struggling to make ends meet in Detroit. Aspiring to be a singer-songwriter, she decided to write a song for fellow Detroit singer and R&B star Jackie Wilson. Spotting Berry Gordy while shipping her song, she requested Gordy to give the song to Wilson but Gordy, who had cut ties with Wilson's manager to form Motown, requested Wells to sing it herself, convincing him to have the teenage Wells record the song rather than give the song to someone else. Recording the song in the style she had envisioned Wilson to sing it, she reportedly recorded the song over 26 times before she recorded a version Gordy could release.

Release and reaction

Released in December 1960, the song became an R&B hit reaching number eight on the Billboard R&B singles chart and crossed over to pop stations where it peaked at number forty-five. It was significant for the fact that it was the first single released under one of the Motown subsidiaries nationally after the label's first singles was released through distributing labels such as United Artists.

Credits

*Lead vocal by Mary Wells
*Background vocals by The Andantes and the Love Tones
*Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers
*Written by Mary Wells
*Produced by Berry Gordy