Blog, Song Lyric Sunday

Song Lyric Sunday – Motown – Ooo Baby Baby

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It’s Motown Week at Song Lyric Sunday! I have chosen an old favorite by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Ooo Baby Baby. It’s such a sexy break up/make up smoochy song. I love it.

Have a great Sunday.

The Song

The song is about cheating, with the singer apologizing for stepping out on his girl and letting her know that he’s all torn up about it. Robinson insists it isn’t autobiographical.

When Smokey Robinson appeared on American Idol in 2009, he said that this song came about by accident. The Miracles used to sing a medley of love songs on stage, and at the end of the medley (a song called “Please Say You Want Me” by the Schoolboys) he broke off into singing “ooh, baby baby.” The Miracles were so in tune that the other members started harmonizing with him, and the crowd went crazy. They incorporated this bit into their live act, then used it as the basis for the song when they decided to record it.

Smokey Robinson wrote this with fellow Miracle Pete “Warren” Moore. It is now considered the Miracles’ signature song.

According to the Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs, “Robinson called this ballad his ‘National anthem,’ noting, ‘Wherever we go, it’s the one song that everybody asks for.'”

This is one of the most confusingly credited songs of all time; the title sometimes appears as “Ooo Baby Baby” instead of “Ooh Baby Baby,” and the group alternately listed as The Miracles or Smokey Robinson & the Miracles. We’ve even seen a demo 45 where the song is listed as “Oo Baby Baby.”

On most compilation albums, the song is listed as “Ooo Baby Baby.”

It is officially published as “Ooh Baby Baby,” with the alternate titles covering all the permutations:

“Baby Baby”
“Oh Baby Baby”
“Ooo Baby Baby”
“Oo Baby Baby”

Linda Ronstadt, who also covered the Miracles song “The Tracks Of My Tears,” released a version of this song that went to #7 US in 1979. The Five Stairsteps also charted with the song, taking it to #63 US in 1967. Other popular versions are by Shalamar, Sylvester and Ella Fitzgerald.
John Lennon, a huge fan of American soul music, copped the “I’m Crying” line in “I Am The Walrus” from the refrain in this song.

Lenny Kravitz covered the song for his 2014 Strut album. Kravitz told The Daily Telegraph that he rarely does covers, but an unexpected blast of this tune left him wanting to record it. “One morning early I was having my make up done for Hunger Games and the make-up artist was listening to a Motown station and it came on,” he said. “I hadn’t heard it for a long time (and) it sounded so beautiful.”

Courtesy of Songfacts

The Lyrics

Ooo la la la la
I did you wrong my heart went out to play
But in the game I lost you
What a price to pay, hey I'm crying

Ooo baby baby
Ooo baby baby

Mistakes I know I've made a few
But I'm only human
You've made mistakes too, I'm crying

Ooo baby baby
Ooo baby baby

I'm just about at the end of my rope
But I can't stop trying I can't give up hope
'Cause I feel that one day I'll hold you near
Whisper I still love you
Until that day is here I'm crying

Ooo baby baby
Ooo baby baby
Ooo baby baby
Ooo baby baby ooo

Writer/s: CLIFFORD N. BRANCH JR., PHYLLIS ROBINSON
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
Blog, Life

Silver Threads

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Silver Threads

No road is straight and no hill is too steep
We walk a crooked mile every day
and climb obstacles only to be pushed back down
We stumble and trip, fall and rise
The fabric of our lives becomes worn and threadbare
We patch and repair making sure it stays strong
and sometimes even replace it in order to start again
in a new place and a new time
The arduous journey is never lost or forgotten
It is who we are and we are destined to follow a path forward
Sometimes we take a wrong turn and feel hopeless
but along the way we take the silver threads from our clouds
and weave them into the tapestry of our lives
Their light a gleaming reminder of how far we have come


Copyright © 2022 Christine Bolton - Poetry for Healing
All Rights Reserved

Grace is hosting Open Link Night at D’Verse Poets
Blog, One Liner Wednesday

One Liner Wednesday – Twitterless

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After several years of having a Twitter account that had barely been used, I have finally cut the cord and I am now Twitterless!

I signed up for a personal Twitter account back in the day but never actually used it. I found it clumsy and was not sure what I ever wanted to say that was relevant, so it was a non starter. When I started my blog I was encouraged to create another account and put a share button on my pages. For a while I linked my posts to Twitter but to a Twitterer it still meant they had to click to see what I was posting. It seems that might have been too much work for many and my Tweets were hardly ever acknowledged. I like to think that the poetry I write for my blog is meaningful and thoughtful and needs to be read slowly and digested. Twitter therefore was not the ideal platform for my work although it can be for many and others thrive in that environment.

I have a wonderful WP follower who posts my work daily on her own Twitter feed but I notice too that no one ever “likes” those posts either. So I asked myself what actually is the point of Twitter to me? The answer was absolutely nothing.

I deleted both accounts the other day after witnessing Elon Musk ride roughshod over his employees and putting their livelihood at risk. The very next day he announced that he had reinstated Donald Trump’s tweeting privileges. Now I know I did the right thing in getting off there!

For Linda G. Hill’s One Liner Wednesday

Word of the day – Platform

Blog, Haiku

The Voice of Autumn- A Haibun

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I find Autumn to be a beautiful time of year, especially if you are lucky enough to live in a place where you can experience the sights and sounds of the season. I live in Florida by choice so I can experience warmer weather year round, but the price to pay is that I no longer see the changes of season.

This Autumn, on September 28th to be exact, we had what you could call a seasonal change that brought many sounds. It’s name was Ian and it was a hurricane. The storm was huge and slow moving. At times its noises were deafening as it shook the entire house. It ripped trees out of the ground and split other trunks in two. Roof tiles flew every which way and rain travelled in all directions and pounded everything it touched. This went on for hours and I would much rather experience the sound of acorns crunching under my feet than the sound of a hurricane ripping homes apart.

Fall is a term for autumn because typically leaves ‘fall’ from the trees. We saw them ripped off along with the branches they were attached to and land five hundred feet away.

Sights and sounds of Fall
A hurricane remembered
for indifference


Copyright © 2022 Christine Bolton - Poetry for Healing
All Rights Reserved 

Linda Lee Lyberg ishosting Monday Haibun at D'Verse and has prompted us with 
'Autumn's voice'
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