My Babe

“My Babe”

Single by Little Walter
Released 1955
Format 10" 78rpm / 7" 45rpm
Recorded January 25, 1955
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Genre Blues
Label Checker (catalog no. 811)
Writer(s) Willie Dixon

"My Babe" is a blues song written by Willie Dixon for Little Walter. Released in 1955 on Checker Records, a subsidiary of Chess Records, the song was the only Dixon composition ever to become a no. 1 R&B single, and it was one of the biggest hits of either of their careers.

The song was based on the traditional gospel song "This Train (Is Bound For Glory)" , which Sister Rosetta Tharpe recorded in the 1939 hit, This Train. Willie Dixon reworked the arrangement and lyrics from the sacred, the procession of saints into Heaven, into the secular, a story about a woman that won't stand for her man to cheat: "My baby, she don't stand no cheating, my babe, she don't stand none of that midnight creeping". Ray Charles had famously, and controversially, pioneered the gospel-song-to-secular-song approach with his reworking of the gospel hymn "Jesus Is All the World to Me" into "I Got a Woman", which hit the Billboard R&B charts on January 22, 1955, later climbing to the #1 position for one week. Within days of the appearance of Charles's song on the national charts, Little Walter entered the studio to record "My Babe", on January 25, 1955. "My Babe" was released while "I've Got A Woman" was still on the charts, and eclipsed Charles's record by spending 19 weeks on the Billboard R&B charts beginning on March 12, 1955, including 5 weeks at the #1 position, making it one of the biggest R&B hits of 1955. The "B" side of "My Babe" was the harmonica instrumental "Thunderbird", following the pattern established by the release of Little Walter's number #1 hit single from 1952, "Juke", of featuring with a vocal performance one side and a harmonica instrumental on the flip side.

Although no documentaion exists, the song was probably recorded at Universal Recorders in Chicago, the site of most Chess and Checker sessions until Chess opened their own studio c. 1956/'57. Backing Little Walter's vocals and harmonica were Robert Lockwood, Jr. and Leonard Caston on guitars, Willie Dixon on double-bass, and Fred Below on drums. Guitarist Luther Tucker, then a member of Walter's band, was absent from the recording session that day. "My Babe" was re-issued in 1961 with an overdubbed female vocal backing chorus and briefly crossed over to the pop charts.

The success of song lead to dozens of cover versions by artists as diverse as Elvis Presley, Dale Hawkins, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Narvel Felts, Sonny Burgess, Cliff Richard, Mickey Gilley, Ricky Nelson, Peter & Gordon, Ronnie Milsap, Conway Twitty, Ramsey Lewis, Grant Green, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Coleman Hawkins, Gene Ammons, The Animals,, the Steve Miller Band, Lou Rawls, Ike & Tina Turner, and many others. The song "My Babe" by the Spencer Davis Group (Stevie Winwood) on their first album is a different song

"My Babe" was performed by Ben Harper, with James Cotton sitting in on blues harp, during the induction ceremony for Little Walter into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008.