''Baby It's Me'' is the eighth studio album by American singer

Diana Ross Diana Ross (born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress. Known as the "Queen of Motown Records", she was the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown#Major divisions, Motown's most suc ...

, released on September 16, 1977, by

Motown Records Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. Founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, it was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau ...

. It peaked at No. 18 on the ''Billboard'' Top 200 and No. 7 on the R&B album chart. The album was produced by producer Richard Perry. The LP yielded one top 40 hit, " Gettin' Ready for Love", reaching number 27 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Other charting singles released from the album include " You Got It" and " Your Love Is So Good for Me", the latter receiving a Grammy nomination. The album also included cover versions of songs written and previously recorded by

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th c ...

Bill Withers William Harrison Withers Jr. (July 4, 1938 – March 30, 2020) was an American singer and songwriter. He is known for having several hits over a career spanning 18 years, including "Ain't No Sunshine" (1971), "Grandma's Hands" (1971), "Use Me ( ...

and

Melissa Manchester Melissa Manchester (born February 15, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Since the 1970s, her songs have been played by adult contemporary radio stations. She has also appeared on television, in films, and on stage. Early li ...

. Adult Contemporary airplay drove the success of this album, with both "Gettin' Ready for Love" (#8) and "You Got It" (#9) being top 10 hits on that chart, while the newly formed ''Billboard'' Dance charts ranked "Your Love Is So Good for Me" at #15 in Billboard, which listed it together with the popular album cut "Top Of The World", for which an unreleased 12" mix (running time 5:50) was created in 1978 and considered for release as the 4th single from the album. Meanwhile, Record World magazine placed "Your Love Is So Good For Me" #7 on its Disco chart. Although this album never made the UK charts, it was certified silver for UK sales in excess of 60,000 copies. Ross would continue to work with Perry including on her pairing with international vocalist

Julio Iglesias Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva (; born 23 September 1943) is a Spanish singer and songwriter. Iglesias is recognized as the most commercially successful Spanish singer in the world and one of the top List of best-selling music artists, reco ...

on their duet, " All of You" several years later. He also remixed the Ross-penned song "So Close" for its 1983 single release. The album was re-released in 2014 in an Expanded Edition with 11 extra tracks (in digital format only). The bonus tracks included 2014 mixes of a number of the original cuts (often in longer unedited versions with additional vocals) as well as four unreleased songs from the album sessions; "Brass Band", "Country John", "Room Enough for Two" and a cover version of

Peter Frampton Peter Kenneth Frampton (born 22 April 1950) is an English-American guitarist, singer, and songwriter who rose to prominence as a member of the rock bands the Herd and Humble Pie. Later in his career, Frampton found significant success as a s ...

's 1975 hit "

Baby, I Love Your Way "Baby, I Love Your Way" is a song written and performed by English singer Peter Frampton, released as a single in September 1975. It first featured on Frampton's fourth album, '' Frampton'' (1975), where it segues from the previous track "Nassau ...

Critical reception

In 2017, '' Goldmine'' wrote that, "at its best, ''Baby It's Me'' breathed sufficient fresh air into her output that when she did go back to basics, with the Ashford-Simpson masterminded ''The Boss'', the new aura remained in play."

Track listing

Personnel

*Diana Ross – lead vocals (all tracks) * James Newton Howard – keyboards,

synthesizers A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

(4) * Tom Scott – saxophone solo (1) *Bud Shank – flute (7) *

David Foster David Walter Foster (born November 1, 1949) is a Canadian record producer, composer, arranger, and musician. He has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. His career began as a keyboardist for the pop group Skylark in the early 1970s befor ...

– horns arrangements, conductor (3) *

Clydie King Clydie Mae King (August 21, 1943 – January 7, 2019) was an American singer, best known for her session work as a backing vocalist. King also recorded solo under her name. In the 1970s, she recorded as Brown Sugar, and her single "Loneliness ( ...

– background vocals (6) *

Tom Snow Thomas Righter Snow (born 1947 in Princeton, New Jersey) is an American songwriter. Biography Snow has written songs for Gayle McCormick "( Even a Fool Would Let Go" with Kerry Chater – a song covered by a number of artists including Kenn ...

– acoustic piano (1, 6), Fender

Rhodes piano The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...

(7, 8, 10) *

Bobbye Hall Bobbye Jean Hall is an American percussionist who has recorded with a variety of rock, soul, blues and jazz artists, and has appeared on 20 songs that reached the top ten in the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Early career, work for ...

–

congas The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are stave (wood), staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (drum), quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), an ...

(7) * Jack Ashford – percussion (1, 6), hotel sheet (3), tambourine (7) *Ben Benay – guitar (9) * Pattie Brooks – background vocals (2, 7) * Ollie E. Brown – drums (9) *

Lenny Castro Lenny Castro (born September 19, 1956) is an American percussionist from the Los Angeles area. He is one of the most prolific percussionists of all time, appearing on hundreds of albums, including those by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Adele, Maroon ...

– percussion (2, 3, 9) *Don Dunn – guitar (3) *Scott Edwards – bass guitar (9) *

Chuck Findley Charles B. Findley (born December 13, 1947, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania) is an American trumpet player known for his diverse work as a session musician. He also plays other brass instruments such as flugelhorn and trombone. His technical ab ...

– horn (5) *Bryan Garofalo – bass guitar (8, 10) * Ed Greene – drums (7) * Jim Horn – horn (5) *

David Hungate David Hungate (born August 5, 1948) is an American retired bass guitarist noted as a member of the Los Angeles pop-rock band Toto from 1976 to 1982 and again from 2014 to 2015, and the son of judge William L. Hungate. Along with most of his ...

– bass guitar (1–3, 6, 7) *

Bobby Kimball Robert Troy Kimball (born March 29, 1947) is an American retired singer best known as longtime frontman of the rock band Toto from 1977 to 1984 and again from 1998 to 2008. He has also performed as a solo artist and session singer. History ...

– background vocals (5) *Becky Lewis – background vocals (2, 7) * Steve Lukather – guitar (1, 6) * Ira Newborn – guitar (7, 8, 10), horns arrangements, conductor (8) *

Michael Omartian Michael S. Omartian (born November 26, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, keyboardist, and music producer. He produced number-one records in three consecutive decades. He has earned 11 Grammy Awards nominations and won three. H ...

– Fender Rhodes piano (2, 3) *

David Paich David Frank Paich (born June 25, 1954) is an American keyboardist, singer, and songwriter, best known as the co-founder, principal songwriter, keyboardist, and secondary vocalist of the rock band Toto (band), Toto since 1977. He wrote or co-wrot ...

– Fender Rhodes piano (7, 9), acoustic piano (7), organ (5), vocals (5) *

Jeff Porcaro Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro (April 1, 1954 – August 5, 1992) was an American drummer. He is best known for being the co-founder and drummer of the rock band Toto, but is also one of the most recorded session musicians in history, working on hundr ...

– drums (1–3, 5, 6), syndrums (all tracks) * Ray Parker Jr. – bass guitar (5), guitar (2, 3, 5, 9) *Ken Peterson – Fender Rhodes piano, synthesizers,

clavinet The Clavinet is an electric clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds with rubber pads, each matching one of the keys and respond ...

(5) *Petsye Powell – background vocals (2, 7) *

Lee Ritenour Lee Mack Ritenour ( ; born January 11, 1952) is an American jazz guitarist who has been active since the late 1960s. Biography Ritenour was born in 1952, in Los Angeles, California. At the age of eight he started playing guitar and four years l ...

– guitar (2, 3, 8, 10) *Stanley Schwartz – acoustic piano (8, 10) * Rick Shlosser – drums (8, 10) *

Richie Zito Richie Zito (born August 21, 1952) is an American songwriter, composer and record producer from Los Angeles. In a career spanning more than 50 years, Zito has experienced success as a prolific session musician, being featured on a wide array of ...

– guitar (7) * Sherlie Matthews – background vocals (6) * Gene Page –

string arrangements The string section of an orchestra is composed of bowed instruments belonging to the violin family. It normally consists of first and second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses. It is the most numerous group in the standard orchestra. In ...

, conductor (1, 2, 6, 9) * Del Newman – string arrangements, conductor (4, 6, 10) * Richard Hewson – string arrangement, conductor ;Technical (7) *Howard Steele – recording and remix engineer *David Larkham – art direction * Victor Skrebneski – photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

Discogs.com, album ''Baby It's Me''.

Rateyourmusic.com, album ''Baby It's Me''.
{{Authority control 1977 albums Diana Ross albums Albums arranged by Gene Page Albums produced by Richard Perry Motown albums