SONGS OF OBSESSION: SMITH'S "BABY, IT'S YOU" posted by O.W.

Smith: Baby, It's You
From A Group Called Smith (Dunhill, 1969)

Still on the road. Just got back from Seattle and Portland - I attended a day and a half of the 5th annual EMP Conference of which I've gone every year even though, this year, didn't present. Some really great papers though and it was very, very good to run into many old friends and colleagues, many of whom I only see once a year. Based on some convos I had there, we might be hearing something more from UW-Madison's Charles Hughes who brought us that great Muscle Shoals series of posts earlier this year - he's got something about the intersection b/t soul and country music that I think is going to blow people's minds. Likewise, good friend Joe Schloss gave an amazing paper on Sly Stone that he promises to convert into a post for us. There's a few other papers I might try to solicit but we'll see what works out.

The song below isn't actually related to any of that but I learned about the Smith's cover of the Shirelle's "Baby, It's You" when I was doing research on the Gayle McCormick album I wrote about earlier. She started in Smith before going solo and "Baby, It's You" was their big hit. I. LOVE. THIS. SONG. Seriously, I cannot get enough of it. This is the exact kind of cover that gets me loopy with excitement. It's familiar yet takes off in a completely different direction at the same time and McCormick just KILLS it on the vocal. Too bad the rest of the album was more or less unlistenable to me. I don't care though, "Baby, It's You" is good enough to hold down a double album of tepid tracks. I drove from Portland to Seattle and back and that song held me down for the 6 hour round trip.