bay be bayyybe bayybe

Candi Staton, “He Called Me Baby” | Stand By Your Man, 1970

Originally written as a country ballad in 1961 by Harlan Howard, a carousel of singers have recorded pronoun-changed versions of “She Called Me Baby” through the years. This includes Patsy Cline, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Glen Campbell, and Lee Ann Womack, as well as a rather schmaltzy, Lawrence-Welk-esque version by Charlie Rich that somehow reached No. 1 in 1974. 

But if ever a version of the song existed that exemplifies the power of “baby” as a term of endearment, it is Candi Staton’s grooving “He Called Me Baby,” off 1970’s Stand By Your Man. Driven by a remarkable bassline by session musician Jesse Boyce, and peppy, rising-crescendo horns from other FAME Gang members at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Staton renders 31 indelible “babies.” Many of them feature mid-word caesuras so notable that they leave the listener wondering whether she’ll be able to finish. 

At the 2:00 mark, we reach the mountaintop of Staton’s “He Called Me Baby,” and just on the other side we are rewarded with three sweet-soul babies that define lost love.

What I’d give 

What I’d give if he’d come on back home

And called me bay  be bayyybe bayybe 

All night long