| Cry Like a Baby | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | April 1968 (U.S.) | |||
| Recorded | 1968 | |||
| Studio | American (Memphis, Tennessee) | |||
| Genre | Pop rock, psychedelic rock | |||
| Length | 30:28 (LP) 44:30 (CD reissue) | |||
| Label | Bell | |||
| Producer | Chips Moman | |||
| The Box Tops chronology | ||||
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Cry Like a Baby is a 1968 album by the Box Tops. The title song was released as a single and reached #2 in April 1968 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, a position which it held for two weeks. It was kept out of the top spot by Bobby Goldsboro's "Honey". [1]
Cry Like a Baby was the second Box Tops album to be recorded, and its April, 1968 release followed the group's debut by just five months. The group would continue working at this fast pace, and released its third album, Non Stop, later in the year.
Songwriter Dan Penn was once again the group's producer for Cry Like a Baby, and he was writer or co-writer for half of the album's songs, including the title track. Spooner Oldham co-wrote four of the songs with Penn and played keyboards on the album. Songwriter Wayne Carson Thompson, who had written the group's two hits, did not have any songs on the original LP version of the album, though he did return for the group's final two albums, and gave The Box Tops its final Top 40 hit.
Musician and record producer Jim Dickinson said of this album that it was "Memphis pop production at its best, on par with the great Dusty In Memphis , recorded by the same cast of characters in the same period. Those two records were as good as it gets." [2] According to Alex Chilton biographer Holly George-Warren, the studio band for all tracks except "You Keep Me Hangin' On" was the house band at America Sound Studio, sometimes known as "The Memphis Boys", augmented by Spooner Oldham on keyboards and other musicians playing brass, woodwind, and stringed instruments. [2] The Box Tops themselves accompanied Chilton on "You Keep Me Hangin' On", which uses the psychedelic rock arrangement of the song that was a hit for Vanilla Fudge. At the end of the song, Chilton sings the lyric "and he walked on down the hall" in a spoken word style similar to the vocal by Jim Morrison on the Doors song "The End" which was recorded and released the previous year.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [3] |
Writing for Allmusic, music critic Steve Kurutz called the title song "a perfect slice of blue-eyed soul" and summarized; "All in all, with the exception of "Cry Like a Baby," an album that could've potentially contained some real gems just doesn't." [3]
All tracks composed by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham; except where indicated
with:
The Box Tops is an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee in 1967. They are best known for the hits "The Letter", "Cry Like a Baby", "Choo Choo Train," and "Soul Deep" and are considered a major blue-eyed soul group of the period. They performed a mixture of current soul music songs by artists such as James & Bobby Purify and Clifford Curry; pop tunes like "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum; and songs written by their producers, Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, and Chips Moman. Vocalist Alex Chilton later fronted the power pop band Big Star and launched a career as a solo artist. During that time he occasionally performed songs he had sung with the Box Tops.
Christopher Branford Bell was an American musician and singer-songwriter. Along with Alex Chilton, he led the power pop band Big Star through its first album #1 Record (1972). He also pursued a solo career throughout the mid-1970s, resulting in the posthumous I Am the Cosmos LP.
Dan Penn is an American songwriter, singer, musician, and record producer, who co-wrote many soul hits of the 1960s, including "The Dark End of the Street" and "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" with Chips Moman and "Cry Like a Baby" with Spooner Oldham. Penn also produced many hits, including "The Letter", by The Box Tops. He has been described as a white soul and blue-eyed soul singer. Penn has released relatively few records featuring his own vocals and musicianship, preferring the relative anonymity of songwriting and producing. Dan Penn produced an album on Ronnie Milsap in 1970 on Warner Bros.
"The Letter" is a song written by Wayne Carson that was first recorded by the American rock band the Box Tops in 1967. It was the group's first and most successful single, reaching number one on the record charts in the United States and Canada. It was also an international success and placed in the top ten in several other countries.
William Cunningham is the original bass guitarist / keyboardist for the Box Tops.
Dewey "Spooner" Lindon Oldham Jr. is an American songwriter and session musician. An organist, he recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, at FAME Studios as part of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section on such hit R&B songs as Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves a Woman", Wilson Pickett's "Mustang Sally", and Aretha Franklin's "I Never Loved a Man ". As a songwriter, Oldham teamed with Dan Penn to write such hits as "Cry Like a Baby", "I'm Your Puppet", and "A Woman Left Lonely" and "It Tears Me Up".
Reigning Sound was an American rock and roll band originally based in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. As of 2019, along with fronting Reigning Sound, Greg Cartwright also reformed his past band Greg Oblivian and the Tip Tops. In 2020, he also reformed with the original "Memphis lineup" of Reigning Sound once again playing shows with the outfit's first incarnation. In a June 8, 2022, message on the group's Facebook page, Cartwright formally announced the end of Reigning Sound.
Ronnie Milsap is the debut studio album by American country music artist Ronnie Milsap. It was released in 1971 on Warner Bros. Records.
The Lady's Not For Sale is a 1972 album by Rita Coolidge, and was released on the A&M Records label, AMLH 64370. It was later reissued on the Music For Pleasure label, MFP-50500. The inner gatefold photo was shot on location by Terry Paul at Stonehenge in the English county of Wiltshire.
Born to Rock and Roll is a compilation album by the ex-Byrds frontman Roger McGuinn, released on Columbia Records in August 1991. It was issued following the success of McGuinn's comeback solo album Back from Rio earlier that same year. Born to Rock and Roll contains songs from all five of McGuinn's solo albums of the 1970s, released after the final breakup of The Byrds in 1973. It was the first time that material from these albums had been released on Compact Disc.
The Letter/Neon Rainbow is the debut album by American rock band the Box Tops, released in 1967. Following "The Letter" reaching number one on the singles charts, The Letter/Neon Rainbow was quickly assembled for a follow-up. The album peaked at number 87 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart in 1968.
The American Sound Studio was a recording studio located in Memphis, Tennessee which operated from 1964 to 1972. Founded by Chips Moman, the studio at 827 Thomas Street came to be known as American North, and the studio at 2272 Deadrick Street came to be known as American East or the Annex.
Loose Shoes and Tight Pussy is the last studio album by American pop-rock musician Alex Chilton, released in Europe in 1999. It was released in the United States in 2000 under the title Set. It was subsequently released on a double CD with one of Chilton's previous albums, Clichés.
Like Flies on Sherbert is the first solo album released by American pop rock musician Alex Chilton. He had previously recorded a collection of songs in 1969 and 1970, ultimately titled 1970, but this was not released until 1996. Released in 1979, Like Flies on Sherbert was recorded at two Memphis studios, Phillips Recording and Ardent Studios, in 1978 and 1979. Chilton had previously been a member of the Box Tops and Big Star.
Alex Chilton was an American musician, singer-songwriter and record producer, best known as the lead singer of the Box Tops and Big Star. Chilton's early commercial success in the 1960s as a teen vocalist for the Box Tops was never repeated in later years with Big Star and in his subsequent indie music solo career on small labels, but he drew an intense following among indie and alternative rock musicians. He is frequently cited as a seminal influence by influential rock artists and bands, some of whose testimonials appeared in the 2012 documentary Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me.
Right On is the tenth studio album release by R&B and soul singer Wilson Pickett released in 1970. Hit covers of The Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On" and The Archies' "Sugar Sugar", as well as the Pickett original "She Said Yes" came from these sessions. The album, however, had dismal sales, staying in the bottom parts of the Billboard 200.
"Cry Like a Baby" is a 1968 song written by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, and performed by The Box Tops. The song reached No.2 in April 1968 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, a position it held for two weeks. It was kept out of the top spot by Bobby Goldsboro's "Honey", which stayed at No.1 for five weeks. "Cry Like a Baby" also reached No.2 on Cashbox for one week. It stayed on the Hot 100 for 15 weeks and Cashbox for 14 weeks. It was awarded a gold disc for selling over one million copies in the United States.
Bach's Bottom is the second solo album by American pop rock musician Alex Chilton, released in 1981. Bach's Bottom was recorded in September and October 1975 at Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee.
High Priest is the third solo album by American pop rock musician Alex Chilton, released in 1987. It was his first full-length album since 1979's commercially disastrous Like Flies on Sherbert. Chilton fronts a solid band of Memphis/New Orleans studio musicians. The album includes a cover of the 1957 instrumental "Raunchy", which was co-written by Sid Manker, who had taught Chilton guitar in his childhood at his father's expense. To promote High Priest, Chilton played more than 60 concerts between 13 September and 19 December 1987, including numerous shows with Ben Vaughn as the support act. The front cover photograph was taken in Rock River, Wyoming by Anna Lee Van Cleef.
Sweet Inspiration is the title of a Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham composition written for, and first recorded in 1967 by, the Sweet Inspirations. It became a Top 20 hit reaching #18 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1968, and a live version by Barbra Streisand, in medley with "Where You Lead", would also become a Top 40 hit.