"Oh Baby Don't You Weep" is a song recorded in 1964 by James Brown and

The Famous Flames The Famous Flames were an American Rhythm and blues, Soul vocal group founded in Toccoa, Georgia, in 1953 by Bobby Byrd. James Brown first began his career as a member of the Famous Flames, emerging as the lead singer by the time of their firs ...

. Based upon the spiritual "

Mary Don't You Weep "Mary Don't You Weep" (alternately titled "O Mary Don't You Weep", "Oh Mary, Don't You Weep, Don't You Mourn", or variations thereof) is a Spiritual that originates from before the American Civil War – thus it is what scholars call a "slave son ...

", it was recorded as an extended-length track and released as the first two-part single of Brown's recording career. It peaked at #23 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and at #4 on the Cash Box R&B Chart. (At the time of the single's release, ''Billboard's''

R&B singles chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

had been temporarily suspended). It was the last original song featuring the Famous Flames to chart, not counting the 1964 re-release of "

Please, Please, Please "Please, Please, Please" is a rhythm and blues song performed by James Brown and the Famous Flames. Written by Brown and Johnny Terry and released as a single on Federal Records in 1956, it reached No. 6 on the R&B charts. The group's debut r ...

" and the 1966 B-side release of the '' Live at the Apollo'' performance of " I'll Go Crazy". "Oh Baby, Don't You Weep" was originally issued with dubbed-in audience noise to simulate a live recording and added to the otherwise authentic live album '' Pure Dynamite: Live At The Royal''. The song's last-minute addition to the album helped make it a hit, propelling it to #10 on the ''Billboard'' Pop Album chart. Brown plays the role of the song's narrator, a man comforting a woman devastated by lost love: The Famous Flames support Brown's lead vocal with gospel-inspired chants of "Oh baby, don't you weep". During the course of the song, the theme suddenly changes, as Brown sings of famous entertainers he has met in his travels ''("I've got a lot of friends in my business")'', and then begins to quote titles of songs recorded by them, such as Jackie Wilson ("You Better Stop Dogging Me Around"), Solomon Burke and

Wilson Pickett Wilson Pickett (March 18, 1941 – January 19, 2006) was an American singer and songwriter. A major figure in the development of soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, many of which crossed over to the ''Bill ...

("If You Need Me....Call Me" and "It's Too Late"), Sam Cooke ("You Send Me")

Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...

("Born To Lose") and Famous Flames member

Bobby Byrd Bobby Howard Byrd (August 15, 1934 – September 12, 2007) was an American rhythm and blues, soul and funk singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, bandleader and talent scout, who played an integral and important part in the development ...

's solo release ("I Found Out Now"). "Oh Baby Don't You Weep" was the last new recording Brown made for King Records for over a year. An incident during the recording session in which producer Gene Redd criticized Brown's piano playing as "musically incorrect" brought to a head his disagreements with label owner

Syd Nathan Sydney Nathan (April 27, 1904 – March 5, 1968) was an American music business executive who founded King Records, a leading independent record label, in 1943. He contributed to the development of country & western music, rhythm and blues a ...

and his staff. In response, Brown and Famous Flame

formed a

production company A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and v ...

, Fair Deal Record Corporation, and accepted an offer from

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it i ...

to release new recordings on their Smash subsidiary. With Brown gone, Nathan resorted to releasing rejected songs and

outtake An outtake is a portion of a work (usually a film or music recording) that is removed in the editing process and not included in the work's final, publicly released version. In the digital era, significant outtakes have been appended to CD and D ...

s from earlier recording sessions in the ensuing months. Eventually King's lawyers took the dispute to court and obtained a ruling preventing Brown from issuing his vocal recordings on other labels. In mid-1965 Brown returned to King to release the hit "

Papa's Got a Brand New Bag "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" is a song written and recorded by James Brown. Released as a two-part single in 1965, it was Brown's first song to reach the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 Top Ten, peaking at number eight, and was a number-one R&B hit, top ...

". He continued to record

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to inst ...

s and produce records for other performers on Smash through 1967. Despite its hit status, "Oh Baby Don't You Weep" has rarely been heard on radio or reissued since its original 1964 release. It appears on the '' Roots of a Revolution'' compilation album and CD in its originally recorded version without the dubbed-in crowd noise, and on the 2007

Hip-O Select Hip-O Records is a record label that specializes in reissues and compilations. It is part of Universal Music Group. Established in 1996, the label has distributed releases from 'out of style' genres such as disco and early hip-hop music as wel ...

release '' James Brown: The Singles Vol. 2''. It inspired a cover version by

Eddie Money Edward Joseph Mahoney (March 21, 1949 – September 13, 2019), known professionally as Eddie Money, was an American singer and songwriter who, in the 1970s and 1980s, had eleven Top 40 songs, including " Baby Hold On", " Two Tickets to Pa ...

Personnel

* James Brown - lead vocal, piano and The Famous Flames *

- vocals * Bobby Bennett - vocals * "Baby Lloyd" Stallworth – vocals *The James Brown Band - additional musicians

References

External links

AllMusic review

"Oh Baby Don't You Weep" - by ''James Brown & The Famous Flames''-hear the song on YouTube
{{James Brown singles 1964 singles James Brown songs The Famous Flames songs 1964 songs