How did "Baby" become the most popular word in pop music?

[DooWahDiddy]

@Thudlow_Boink

Yeah, but I think the ubiquity of “baby” predates 1964. Jerry Lee Lewis’s “Kiss me baby” (from “Great Balls of Fire”) and Elvis’s “Since my baby left me” (from “Heartbreak Hotel”) spring to mind, not to mention “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby,” which the Beatles covered but was written and recorded much earlier.

And really not to mention Everybody Loves My Baby (But My Baby Don’t Love Nobody But Me) from 1924, and When My Baby Smiles at Me from 1920.

[md2000]

@Don_Draper

Call it the “Lennon-McCartney Act of 1964”: all rock / pop songs shall henceforth be obliged to use the words “baby” and/or “yeah!” as often as possible in the lyrics.

My WAG: “baby” just handily fits into the rhyme scheme of most pop music lyrics, which is most often written in a iambic quadrameter syllables, i.e. long-short/long-short/long-short/long-short. It fits right with the standard four beat pattern of most pop rock: ONE-two/TWO-two/THREE-two/FOUR-two.

Try saying “dear” (one syllable) or “honey” (a word that stresses the second syllable more than the first) to a rock & roll beat. They just don’t fit.

“…I’m so glad, she’s my little girl,
She’s so glad she’s telling all the world…”
-Lennon-McCartney, She Loves You (yeah, yeah yeah)

Could be worse, Chevalier seemed distinctly uncomfortable singing “Thank Heaven for Little Girls”.

[Freudian_Slit]

Even before the Beatles there were tons of babys. All of those Phil Spector songs–Be My Baby, Baby I Love You, You Baby, Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), etc.

[Prelude_to_Fascination]

@Thudlow_Boink

Yeah, but I think the ubiquity of “baby” predates 1964. Jerry Lee Lewis’s “Kiss me baby” (from “Great Balls of Fire”) and Elvis’s “Since my baby left me” (from “Heartbreak Hotel”) spring to mind, not to mention “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby,” which the Beatles covered but was written and recorded much earlier.

Be Bop A Lula predates the Beatles: Gene Vincent recorded it in 1956.

Well, be-bop-a-lula, she’s my baby
Be-bop-a-lula, I don’t mean maybe…

[Kamino_Neko]

@md2000

“…I’m so glad, she’s my little girl,
She’s so glad she’s telling all the world…”
-Lennon-McCartney, She Loves You (yeah, yeah yeah)

Probably walking into a woosh, but that’s I Feel Fine, not She Loves You. More on topic to this thread, the first few lines are ‘Baby’s good to me, you know. She’s happy as can be, you know. She said so.’

[CookingWithGas]

@Prelude_to_Fascination

Be Bop A Lula predates the Beatles: Gene Vincent recorded it in 1956.

“Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” was written in 1925. The first lines of Be Bop A Lula either rip it off or pay it tribute, not sure which.

[foolsguinea]

@Don_Draper

My WAG: “baby” just handily fits into the rhyme scheme of most pop music lyrics, which is most often written in a iambic quadrameter syllables, i.e. long-short/long-short/long-short/long-short. It fits right with the standard four beat pattern of most pop rock: ONE-two/TWO-two/THREE-two/FOUR-two.

That’s trochaic. Iambic quadrameter would be a-ONE a-TWO a-THREE a-FOUR.

Try saying “dear” (one syllable) or “honey” (a word that stresses the second syllable more than the first) to a rock & roll beat. They just don’t fit.

“Honey” is in fact pronounced as a trochee in many instances. I would consider “huh-NEE” to be nonstandard, though at least few people would really think you were talking about bee food.

[md2000]

@Tengu

Probably walking into a woosh, but that’s I Feel Fine, not She Loves You. More on topic to this thread, the first few lines are ‘Baby’s good to me, you know. She’s happy as can be, you know. She said so.’

Doh!!

Thanks. Yeah, just proves L-McC were following the general trend, not anywhere near setting it. And, oddly enough, now that I google the lyrics, there’s not a single “baby” in “She Loves You”; while “little girl” is used in “Twist and Shout” (a cover, IIRC), “Run for Your Life”, and of course “Hello Little Girl” and “Thank You Little Girl”.

Can’t Buy Me Love, And I Love Her, Hard Days Night… all don’t say “baby” either.

[Labdad]

Just a few that leap to mind:

@Wikipedia

“Pretty Baby” is a song written by Tony Jackson during the Ragtime era. The song was remembered as being prominent in Jackson’s repertory before he left New Orleans in 1912, but was not published until 1916

“Everybody Loves My Baby”, also known as “Everybody Loves My Baby, but My Baby Don’t Love Nobody but Me”, is a popular and jazz standard song composed by Spencer Williams in 1924. Lyrics were written by Jack Palmer.

“Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby” is a 1944 Louis Jordan song, released as the B-side of single with “G.I. Jive”. “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby” reached #1 on the US folk/country charts. The Louis Jordan recording also peaked at number two for three weeks on the pop chart and peaked at number three on the R&B charts.

So its use has been around a LONG time!

[Johanna]

Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal. 1899.

[md2000]

@Johanna

Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal. 1899.

Yeah, but that was a frog singing that, wasn’t it?

[Fiddle_Peghead]

It became so popular because “inamorata” was too clumsy.

[KneadToKnow]

@md2000

Yeah, but that was a frog singing that, wasn’t it?

And it will be again. That’s the beauty of it.

[Jackmannii]

“Baby! Baby!.. Why does he say this “baby”? The Führer has never said “baby”.”

• Franz Liebkind

[Prelude_to_Fascination]

@CookingWithGas

“Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” was written in 1925. The first lines of Be Bop A Lula either rip it off or pay it tribute, not sure which.

That’s the great thing about the Dope. I didn’t know the year that was written, and wasn’t trying to claim Gene Vincent had the earliest song with “Baby” in it, only that his song predated the Beatles.

But when I hear “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby,” I automatically think of When Harry Met Sally and the Pictionary game. “Baby Fishmouth”!

[SecretaryofEvil]

@Johanna

2. maybe it also expresses a man’s subconscious wish to keep his girlfriend helpless and totally dependent on him instead of being a strong woman and his equal.

So that’s why my girlfriend calls me baby. I knew there was something sinister behind it.

[SecretaryofEvil]

Baby isn’t just reserved for lovers. People frequently refer to a prized possession as “My baby.” People might say, “This Corvette is my baby,” or “I’ve been working on this project for three years; it’s my baby.”

[KneadToKnow]

Concur with SecretaryofEvil. Sometimes a metaphor is just a metaphor.

[Clearpupil]

Origin in pop is in Arabic music which uses “beeby” imported via slavery to the USA meaning ‘my beloved’ -> blues -> rock -> pop. No change since. Actually the word baby entered English in 14c. from Spanish ‘bebe’ also from Arabic ‘beeby’ lyrical form for ‘my beloved’.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@Clearpupil

Origin in pop is in Arabic music which uses “beeby” imported via slavery to the USA meaning ‘my beloved’ -> blues -> rock -> pop. No change since. Actually the word baby entered English in 14c. from Spanish ‘bebe’ also from Arabic ‘beeby’ lyrical form for ‘my beloved’.

Unlikely.

baby (n.)
late 14c., babi, dim. of baban (see babe + -y (3)). Meaning “childish adult person” is from c.1600. Meaning “youngest of a group” is from 1897. As a term of endearment for one’s lover it is attested perhaps as early as 1839, certainly by 1901; its popularity perhaps boosted by baby vamp “a popular girl,” student slang from c.1922. As an adjective, by 1750. Baby food is from 1833. Baby blues for “blue eyes” recorded by 1892 (the phrase also was used for “postpartum depression” 1950s-60s). To empty the baby out with the bath (water) is first recorded 1909 in G.B. Shaw (cf. Ger. das Kind mit dem Bade ausschütten). Baby’s breath (noted for sweet smell, which also was supposed to attract cats) as a type of flower is from 1897. French bébé (19c.) is from English.

babe
late 14c., short for baban (early 13c.), which probably is imitative of baby talk (cf. babble), however in many languages the cognate word means “old woman” (cf. Rus. babushka “grandmother,” from baba “peasant woman”).

    Crist crid in cradil, "moder, baba!" [John Audelay, c.1426]

Now mostly superseded by its dim. form baby. Used figuratively for "a childish person" from 1520s. Meaning "attractive young woman" is 1915, college slang. Babe in the woods is from 1795.