(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please refer to the "Poor Little Fool" post)
The Supremes - "Baby Love"
Hit Number 1: October 31, 1964
Stay at Number 1: 4 Weeks
Motown was beginning to find its footing in a huge way. After three girls who called themselves "The Supremes" scored a massive hit in "Where Did Our Love Go", Motown's founder Berry Gordy wanted more. He wanted to see if he had found the "next big thing" at his own record company. The team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, who wrote and produced the group's first chart-topper, were determined in bringing Gordy what he desired, and you might say that they played it safe. When they created "Baby Love" for the Supremes, they kept a lot of the traits that "Where Did Our Love Go" had. This included the foot stomps by a teenager named Mike Valvano, and the happy sound for a song that isn't very happy lyrically.
Just like "Where Did Our Love Go", "Baby Love" is about a love on the rocks, with the female narrator wanting to keep it alive, and asking herself why the guy wants to hurt her like that. Also just like "Where Did Our Love Go", "Baby Love" features the same rich and clean vocals by Diana Ross, and you can just paint a picture in your head of her smiling while singing this sad song, that's disguised extremely well as a happy song. There are some differences though. The backup singers, Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson, have a more prominent role in "Baby Love", rather than the "baby babys" they contributed to "Where Did Our Love Go". To be honest, you could probably take out their backup vocals in "Where Did Our Love Go", and it would still be a good song. I can't say the same for "Baby Love". The two sing "don't throw our love away" and "baby" over and over again in the chorus. If you take that out, you'd feel like there's something missing. I think those girls are very underrated as far as backup singers go, so I love seeing the two have a larger role in this song than they did other Supremes' hits.
For most of the song, that's really the only difference between "Baby Love and "Where Did Our Love Go". I said most, because the last minute or so of the song swells into something amazing and blows "Where Did Our Love Go" away. "Baby Love" takes off like a rocket at the end, changing its pitch, and it's like the sun finally comes out from behind the clouds when the last minute plays. That part is what makes "Baby Love" probably my favorite Supremes song. The listener is surrounded by so much happiness and excitement, you don't even REALIZE or even CARE that the lyrics are so somber. The only thing you're doing is tapping your foot to the beat, or unknowingly singing along with Ross, or both! "Where Did Our Love Go" was certainly a great song, but it was like Holland-Dozier-Holland took it, made some minor tweaks, and all of a sudden, created a masterpiece. The result of it was "Baby Love". The Supremes will have several other songs appear in this blog, but none reaching the heights of "Baby Love". To me, that was their peak.
GRADE: 10/10
JUST MISSED:
It's hard for me to like songs that are depressing as all hell. J. Frank and the Cavaliers' "Last Kiss" is depressing as hell. Listen to "Baby Love" then this at your own risk. "Last Kiss" is a 4.
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