Search - Bruce Channel :: Hey!Baby

Such a simple little song

Jimmie H. Rogers | waco tex | 11/12/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I was the bass player on hey baby.we were a group called the rondels playing around ft worth tex. and bruce channel sat in with us from time to time.ronnie kelly was the "ron" and delbert mcclinton was the "del'.hey baby was cut in a very short time and every one was supprised when it went to #1 on the charts.bruce and delbert went on tour in england where they met the beatles. the rest of the band made about $72.50, union scale at that time for studio work.its cool to to hear it on the radio after all these years.

jimmie"

Channel Is Given The Collectables Treatment

08/28/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Of all the outfits out there devoting their efforts to giving us the hit singles of the stars of the 1950s/60s [Ace, Rhino, Varese-Sarabande, Eric, etc], Collectables - in my opinion - has to rate at or near the bottom of the heap for one simple but significant reason: they seemingly cannot [or WILL not] offer a compilation on almost ANY artist they cover without leaving off something significant. And that, as I have said repeatedly, is a habit especially annoying when dealing with artists who only had a few hits to begin with!



Take Bruce Channel as an example. In this volume the ONLY selection worth listening to is Hey Baby which was a # 1 Billboard Pop Hot 100 for three weeks in early 1962, and also crossed over to the R&B charts at # 2 for Mercury's Smash subsidiary after they picked it up from the small LeCam label. The B-side is Dream Girl. In my opinion, however, a large part of its success was due to the fact that the great Delbert McClinton played harmonica on the track, coupled with the initial assumption on hearing the record that Channel was black.



That is born out by the fact that, once he began appearing on TV following the disc's success, nothing else he did would come close, although he did put four more selections into the Hot 100. But, typically, Collectables leaves three of them out of this compilation [Come On Baby # 98 in 1962 for Smash b/w Mine Exclusively - which IS here], the Dixieland-style rocker Going Back To Louisiana [# 89 in 1964 for LeCam, which released this earlier recorded side after his big hit - the flip was Forget Me Not], and Mr. Bus Driver [# 90 in 1967 and produced by Dale Hawkins on the Mala label b/w It's Me]. The fourth - Number One Man [# 52 in 1962 on Smash b/w If Only I Had Known] - is not the original single version. In 1968, also for Mala, he had a U.K. hit with Keep On [also omitted here].



It's said he was an early favourite of The Beatles, who arranged to have him appear with them at a Liverpool concert in 1962, and that parts of his Hey Baby sound found its way into Love Me Do. Ironically, he was one among many North American artists who ultimately could not withstand the British Invasion, led by The Fab Four.



Save your money on this one and wait for a definitive all-encompassing Bruce Channel volume."