First Base (album)

Last updated

First Base
Babe Ruth-First Base.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedNovember 1972
RecordedJune–September 1972
EMI Studios, London
Genre
Length41:36
Label Harvest EMI (Capitol Records in the US)
Producer Alan Shacklock, Nick Mobbs
Babe Ruth chronology
First Base
(1972)
Amar Caballero
(1973)
Singles from First Base
  1. "Wells Fargo"
    Released: November 3, 1972
  2. "The Mexican"
    Released: 1973
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [1]
Christgau's Record Guide C+ [2]
Creem B− [3]
The Rolling Stone Record Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [4]

First Base is the debut album by English rock band Babe Ruth. Produced by guitarist Alan Shacklock and Nick Mobbs, and engineered by Tony Clark at the EMI's Abbey Road Studios between June and September 1972, it was released November that year.

Contents

The album track "Wells Fargo" — a hard rock song named after the cash-transporting stagecoach line of the American Old West, with lyrics evoking the era's cowboy legend — was released as a single and became an FM radio hit. [5]

The album went gold in Canada (#87 [6] ), sold well in the US, but had disappointing sales by comparison in the UK. The song "The Mexican" has been covered and remixed many times. Among them, it was covered in 1984 by John "Jellybean" Benitez with vocals by Janita Haan. "The Mexican" was also mixed into the third track of The Dirtchamber Sessions Volume One by Liam Howlett of The Prodigy in 1999 and covered by GZA in 2015.

The sleeve design, painting and photography were by Roger Dean.

Track listing

  1. "Wells Fargo" (Alan Shacklock) – 6:14
  2. "The Runaways" (music: Alan Shacklock, words: David Whiting) – 7:12
  3. "King Kong" (Frank Zappa) – 6:40, recorded in one take, no overdubs
  4. "Black Dog" (Jesse Winchester) – 8:03
  5. "The Mexican" (Alan Shacklock) – 5:48 - interpolates Per Qualche Dollaro in Piu ( For a Few Dollars More , music by Ennio Morricone)
  6. "Joker" (Alan Shacklock) – 7:42
  7. "Wells Fargo" (single version, CD only; Shacklock) – 3:35
  8. "Theme from For a Few Dollars More" (CD only; Morricone) – 2:19

Personnel

Babe Ruth
Other musicians

Charts

Chart (1972)Peak
position
Canada Top Albums/CDs ( RPM ) [7] 87
US Billboard 200 [8] 178

Releases

Related Research Articles

<i>Obsession</i> (UFO album) 1978 studio album by UFO

Obsession is the seventh studio album by English rock band UFO, released in 1978. This was the final studio album to feature Michael Schenker on lead guitar until he returned to the band in 1993. A single from the album, "Only You Can Rock Me" / "Cherry", was also released in 1978. So too was the band's first three-track EP "Only You Can Rock Me", "Cherry" / "Rock Bottom", reaching No. 50 in the UK. The album was recorded at an abandoned post office in Los Angeles.

<i>Atom Heart Mother</i> 1970 studio album by Pink Floyd

Atom Heart Mother is the fifth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd. It was released by Harvest on 2 October 1970 in the United Kingdom, and on 10 October 1970 in the United States. It was recorded at EMI Studios in London, and was the band's first album to reach number 1 in the UK, while it reached number 55 in the US, eventually going gold there.

<i>Ummagumma</i> 1969 album by Pink Floyd

Ummagumma is the fourth album by English rock band Pink Floyd. It is a double album and was released on 7 November 1969 by Harvest Records. The first disc consists of live recordings from concerts at Mothers Club in Birmingham and the College of Commerce in Manchester that contained part of their normal set list of the time, while the second contains solo compositions by each member of the band recorded at EMI Studios. The artwork was designed by regular Pink Floyd collaborators Hipgnosis and features a number of pictures of the band combined to give a Droste effect. It was the last album cover to feature the band.

<i>ELO 2</i> 1973 studio album by Electric Light Orchestra

ELO 2 is the second studio album by the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), released in 1973. In the US, the album was released as Electric Light Orchestra II. It was the band's last album to be released by the Harvest label, the last on which the band used the definite article The in their name, and the one that introduced their abbreviated name 'ELO'.

<i>A New World Record</i> 1976 studio album by Electric Light Orchestra

A New World Record is the sixth studio album by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). It was released on 15 October 1976, by United Artists Records in the United States and on 19 November 1976, by Jet Records in the United Kingdom. A New World Record marked ELO's shift towards shorter pop songs, a trend which would continue across their career.

<i>Heads & Tales</i> (album) 1972 studio album by Harry Chapin

Heads & Tales is the first studio album by the American singer/songwriter Harry Chapin, released in 1972. The album contains Chapin's first hit, "Taxi." The album and single both charted successfully for over six months, with both selling over 1 million copies each.

<i>Head On</i> (Bachman–Turner Overdrive album) 1975 studio album by Bachman–Turner Overdrive

Head On is the fifth studio album by Canadian rock band Bachman–Turner Overdrive, released in December 1975. On the original vinyl release, the outer album cover expanded into a 24x24 inch poster featuring all four members of the band at that time. It was re-released in 2003 on Repertoire Records in conjunction with Mercury Records. The re-release featured the bonus track "Down to the Line", which was released as a single in 1975 but not included on the vinyl nor the original Mercury CD release of Head On.

<i>Elton John</i> (album) 1970 studio album by Elton John

Elton John is the second studio album by English singer-songwriter Elton John. It was released on 10 April 1970 through DJM Records. Including John's breakthrough single "Your Song", the album helped establish his career during the rise of the singer-songwriter era of popular music.

<i>Barabajagal</i> 1969 studio album by Donovan

Barabajagal is the seventh studio album and eighth album overall from British singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released by Epic Records in the United States on 11 August 1969, but was not released in the United Kingdom because of a continuing contractual dispute that also prevented Sunshine Superman, Mellow Yellow, and The Hurdy Gurdy Man from being released in the UK. The album reached No. 22 in Canada and the title single reached No. 20.

<i>Deepest Purple: The Very Best of Deep Purple</i> 1980 compilation album by Deep Purple

Deepest Purple: The Very Best of Deep Purple is a compilation album by the English hard rock band Deep Purple, released in 1980 on LP. It features the original hits of Deep Purple before their 1984 reunion. Aided by a TV advertising campaign it would become Purple's third UK No. 1 album. In 1984 this compilation additionally was published on CD.

<i>Inner Secrets</i> 1978 studio album by Santana

Inner Secrets is the tenth studio album by Santana. It was released in 1978 and, unlike the fusion of Latin, jazz, rock, and spirituality that characterized previous records, it was considered a rock album.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Babe Ruth (band)</span> English rock band

Babe Ruth are an English rock band from Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. They were initially active in the 1970s and reformed in 2002.

"The Mexican" is a song by English rock band Babe Ruth, from their debut album First Base.

<i>Message from the Country</i> 1971 studio album by the Move

Message from the Country is the fourth and final studio album by the Move, as well as the group's only album for EMI's Harvest label. It was recorded simultaneously with the first Electric Light Orchestra album, The Electric Light Orchestra.

<i>The Electric Light Orchestra</i> (album) 1971 debut album by Electric Light Orchestra

The Electric Light Orchestra is the debut studio album by English rock band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), released in December 1971 in the United Kingdom by Harvest Records. In the United States, the album was released in March 1972 as No Answer, after a misunderstood telephone message made by a United Artists Records executive asking about the album name; the caller, having failed to reach the ELO contact, wrote down "no answer" in his notes, and this was misconstrued to be the name of the album.

<i>Crash Landing</i> (Jimi Hendrix album) 1975 compilation album by Jimi Hendrix

Crash Landing is a posthumous compilation album by American guitarist Jimi Hendrix. It was released in March and August 1975 in the US and the UK respectively. It was the first Hendrix album to be produced by Alan Douglas.

<i>All About a Feeling</i> 1973 studio album by Donna Fargo

All About a Feeling is the third studio album released by American country artist Donna Fargo. The album was released in October 1973 on Dot Records and was produced by Fargo's husband and manager Stan Silver. It was Donna Fargo's second studio released in 1973 and spawned two Top 10 hits on the Billboard country chart between 1973 and 1974. It was Fargo's first studio album not to chart among the Billboard 200 albums list.

Alan Albert Shacklock is an English musician, composer, arranger and recording producer, who lives and works in Nashville, Tennessee. His 1972 song "The Mexican" as performed by Babe Ruth is considered influential in the early development of b-boying and hip-hop culture.

<i>I Dont Know How to Love Him</i> (album) 1971 studio album by Helen Reddy

I Don't Know How to Love Him is the debut studio album by Australian-American pop singer Helen Reddy, released on May 10, 1971, by Capitol Records. I Don't Know How to Love Him included her first recording of "I Am Woman". The album made its first appearance on Billboard magazine's Top LP's chart in the issue dated June 5, 1971, and remained there for 37 weeks, peaking at number 100, and got as high as number 40 on the album chart in Canada's RPM magazine. On November 27, 1974, the album received Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America, and on March 29, 2005, it was released for the first time on compact disc as one of two albums on one CD, the other album being Reddy's eponymous follow-up that originally came out in the fall of 1971.

<i>Helen Reddy</i> (album) 1971 studio album by Helen Reddy

Helen Reddy is the second studio album by Australian-American pop singer Helen Reddy, released on November 8, 1971, by Capitol Records. Reddy's selections include tracks by singer-songwriters Carole King, John Lennon, Randy Newman, and Donovan. It debuted on Billboard magazine's Top LP's chart in the issue dated December 4, 1971, and had a seven-week chart run in which it got as high as number 167. On March 29, 2005, the album was released for the first time on compact disc as one of two albums on one CD, the other album being I Don't Know How to Love Him, Reddy's debut LP that originally came out in the spring of 1971.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "First Base - Babe Ruth - Songs, Reviews, Credits - AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  2. 1 2 Christgau, Robert (1981). "Babe Ruth: First Base". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies . Ticknor & Fields. ISBN   089919026X . Retrieved 31 August 2018.
  3. Christgau, Robert (November 1973). "The Christgau Consumer Guide". Creem . Retrieved 31 August 2018.
  4. The Rolling Stone Record Guide. Random House. 1979. p. 18.
  5. Luhrssen, David; Larson, Michael (2017). Encyclopedia of Classic Rock. ABC-CLIO. p. 11. ISBN   1440835144.
  6. "RPM Top 100 Albums - July 27, 1974" (PDF).
  7. "Top RPM Albums: Issue 5087b". RPM . Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved January 30, 2025.
  8. "Babe Ruth Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved January 30, 2025.
  9. "Babe Ruth : First Base". United-mutations.com. Retrieved 23 November 2017.