Baby, Come Back (album)

Baby, Come Back
Studio album by
The Equals
Released1968
Recorded1966–1968
GenreBeat music, pop rock, psychedelic funk, psychedelic soul, psychedelic pop, psychedelic rock, funk rock
LabelRCA Victor
LSP-4078
ProducerEdward Kassner
Singles from Baby, Come Back
  1. "Baby, Come Back
    b/w Hold Me Closer
    RCA Victor 47-9583

    RCA Victor 47-9186
    (radio station copies)"

Baby, Come Back is an album by British group The Equals, which was released in the U.S. by RCA Victor, who had obtained the rights to manufacture and distribute the album in all of the Americas from the band's British label, President Records.

The record contains tracks culled from their first three UK albums, Unequalled Equals (1967), Explosion (1968), and Sensational Equals (1968). Two of the tracks were taken from Unequalled: the UK chart-topping single "Baby, Come Back", and "Hold Me Closer". Three tracks came from Explosion: "Police On My Back", "Teardrops", and "Leaving You Is Hard To Do". The remaining six tracks came from the band's third British album, Sensational.[1]

Because it was built around the group's biggest hit, "Baby, Come Back", this was the group's most commercially successful album in the U.S. Despite the fact that the album is a showcase example of British Invasion-era beat music, it has never been available on CD. The only other known alternate configuration for the album was as an 8-track tape cartridge – RCA catalog number P8S 1388.[2] (The 8-track also contains an additional song not present on the vinyl album: the ballad "Is It Right").[3]

Track listing

Side One

  1. "Baby, Come Back" (Eddy Grant)
  2. "Reincarnation" (Derv Gordon, Grant)
  3. "Police on My Back" (Grant)
  4. "Teardrops" (Grant, Derv Gordon, Lincoln Gordon)
  5. "The Guy Who Made Her a Star" (Tony Clarke)

Side Two

  1. "Laurel and Hardy" (Grant)
  2. "Soul Groovin'" (Grant)
  3. "Good Times Are Gone Forever" (Grant, Patrick Lloyd)
  4. "Leaving You Is Hard to Do" (Derv Gordon, Lincoln Gordon)
  5. "The Skies Above" (Grant)
  6. "Hold Me Closer" (Grant, Lincoln Gordon)

Personnel

The Equals
  • Eddy Grant - lead guitar, vocals
  • Derv Gordon - lead vocals
  • Lincoln Gordon - bass guitar, vocals
  • Patrick Lloyd - rhythm guitar
  • John Hall - drums

All song and personnel information gathered from the liner notes of the album Baby, Come Back (Copyright © 1968 by RCA Records)

Cover versions of songs

"Police on My Back" was covered by The Clash on the Sandinista! album, in 1980. The Clash version was sampled by Lethal Bizzle for his version of the song, which was released as a single and included on his 2007 album Back to Bizznizz.[4] His version reached number 37 on the UK Singles Chart. Other covers of the song include a Spanish-language version recorded by Amparanoia titled "La semana", released on her debut album El Poder de Machín, and a version performed as a collaboration between Asian Dub Foundation and Zebda for the French TV programme Music Planet 2Nite in February 2003 which was included as a bonus track on ADF's 2003 album Enemy of the Enemy.[5]

"Baby, Come Back" was successfully covered by Pato Banton; his re-make of the song saw it top the UK Singles chart for a second time, in October 1994.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Baby, Come Back", Discogs.com. Retrieved 12 March 2018
  2. ^ "Baby, Come Back (8-track cartridge)", Discogs.com. Retrieved 20 November 2023
  3. ^ "Baby, Come Back (Track listing - 8-track cartridge)", Discogs.com. Retrieved 20 November 2023
  4. ^ Service, Tom (5 October 2007). "Lethal Bizzle clashes with the mainstream". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  5. ^ Stratton, Jon (28 May 2013). "'Police On My Back' and the postcolonial experience". Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture. 19 (5): 536–551. doi:10.1080/13504630.2013.796882. hdl:20.500.11937/30636. ISSN 1363-0296. S2CID 144672496.
  6. ^ "Pato Banton - Baby, Come Back", officialcharts.com. Retrieved 29 December 2023