Baby

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Baby

For you.jpg
from the album For You
Song details
Performer: Prince
First Released: 7 April 1978 - For You album
Album(s): For You
Writer(s): Prince
Producer(s): Prince
Live Appearances
First and last live appearance:
Performed regularly on tour:
  • none
Performed occasionally in shows:

Baby is the sixth track on on Prince’s first album For You. In 1980, it was included as the b-side of Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?, the second single from Prince’s second album Prince.

An early version of the song was recorded in Summer 1976 at Moon Sound in Minneapolis, Minnesota (during the same set of sessions as Aces, Diamond Eyes, Don’t Forget, Don’t Hold Back, Fantasy, I’m Yours, Jelly Jam (which was later used as the instrumental portion of Just As Long As We’re Together), Leaving For New York, Love Is Forever (later renamed My Love Is Forever), Make It Through The Storm, Since We’ve Been Together, Surprise and Soft And Wet). The early version was included as the first track on Prince’s 1976 demo tape he took to various record companies in New York.

Inspiration for the songs lyrics, dealing with an unplanned pregnancy, did not come from Prince’s personal experience, but were based on stories about what his friends were dealing with.

Two more versions were recorded in 1976-1977 at Sound 80 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, prior to Prince signing a contract or beginning work on his first album. An ensemble of musicians from a Minneapolis radio station, The WAYL Orchestra, was brought in to add strings to the song, but Prince didn’t like the end result, preferring synthetic strings instead.

Specific recording dates for the album version of song are not known, but the album was recorded at the Record Plant in Sausalito, California, from 1 October 1977 to 22 December 1977, before overdubs and mixing took place, in early January 1978 at Sound Labs in Los Angeles, California. Patrice Rushen was long thought to have played keyboards (uncredited) on the song, but in a 2021 interview she only talks about giving Prince a hand with the orchestral arrangements and writing them out, not actually playing any.


Recording Information
Recording Sessions
Date Studio Additional info
Summer 1976 Moon Sound,
Minneapolis, MN, USA
preliminary recording
1976-1977 Sound 80,
Minneapolis, MN, USA
Re-recording
October - December 1977 Record Plant,
Sausalito, CA, USA
Re-recording
Early January 1978 Sound Labs,
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Overdubs and mixing
Recording Personnel
  • Prince - all vocals and instruments:

Versions
Released Versions
Title Length Released Version Additional info
Baby 3:09 For You

Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad? single

Studio


Sampled, Referred to, Quoted in...
Title Length Released Version Additional info
EyeBlue.png Hate U 5:54 The Gold Experience

EyeBlue.png Hate U single
The Versace Experience (Prelude 2 Gold)

Studio The track, and its remixes, uses a synth line borrowed from Baby
Unreleased Versions
Title Version Additional Info
Baby Studio 1976 Moon Sound sessions
Baby Studio 1976-1977 Sound 80 sessions
Baby Studio 1976-1977 Sound 80 sessions with string overdubs (rejected by Prince)
Baby Instrumental version 1976-1977 Sound 80 sessions
Baby Studio 1977 Record Plant version before Sound Labs Overdubs and mixing
 
Additional Information

See also Trivia

  • The first live performance of this track by Prince was on21 January 2016, over 37 years after its release (the longest period of time between the release of a song and its live debut).

References
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