'Havin' My Baby' changed the World

Subject: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Little Hawk
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 03:40 PM

For the worse...

I used to hear it in restaurants frequently, and I would temporarily lose my appetite. It went on for months and months. Did anyone else experience that?

Paul Anka has had a profound effect on all of us, an unforgettable effect, and I think this should be recognized with all the seriousness it deserves.

Note that William Shatner never covered "Havin' My Baby". That speaks for itself.

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: MMario
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 03:43 PM

LH - you had morning sickness? I'm told weak tea and dry crackers hels.

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Little Hawk
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 03:55 PM

Weak tea and dry crackers is good for taming excessive sexual desires too, isn't it?

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: MMario
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 03:58 PM

In the desiree or desirer?

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Amos
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 04:12 PM

Havin' mah buhayyyybeee....
Wod a wunnerfulway of showin how much yew luhuuuve me! (Gag...)

This, um, changed the world....how exackerly?


A

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Cool Beans
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 04:22 PM

Sheesh! I nearly spit out my coffee when I read the title of this thread. I'm still laughing.

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: John Hardly
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 04:57 PM

"'Havin' My Baby' changed the World"

It cleared the path for such artistry as:

LOBO...

When I saw you standin' there
I 'bout fell off my chair
And when you moved your mouth to speak
I felt the blood go to my feet

...and...

Me and you and a dog named "Boo"
Traveling and living off the land
Me and you and a dog named "Boo"
How I love bein' a free man

And Mary MacGregor...

Torn between two lovers
Feeling like a fool
Lovin' both of you
Is breakin' all the rules


.....ah, folk rock. The world will never be the same.

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: GUEST,Sidewinder.
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 06:40 PM

Was this Paul Ankas attempt at becoming Johnny Cash or Paul Ankas attempt to get the great JC to record one of his songs? This was the man that wrote "My Way" for Sinatra and "She's A Lady" for Tom Jones so he can't be all bad can he? Try and find a little forgiveness and compassion in your heart for this poor deluded soul and remember him for "Diana" and "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" LOL.

Regards.

Sidewinder.

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: PoppaGator
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 06:53 PM

Sidewinder's right: "Diana" and "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" were some of the greatest songs of their time and genre, and both "My Way" and "She's A Lady" were just about perfect for the personalities for whom they were written. "Oh Carol(e)," addressed to his Brill Building colleague Carole King by a very young Mr. Anka, ain't too shabby either.

I had always liked Paul Anka's songs (or, at least, most of the songs that I knew were written by him), but the appearance of "Havin' My Baby" really turned me off. What a piece of embarrassingly sentimental crap! Didn't change the world, but certainly changed my opinion of the songwriter...

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: GUEST,Sidewinder.
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 07:15 PM

Hi Old Buddy how the hell are you? Just to correct you on your composers; Neil Sedaka wrote "Oh!Carol" but you are right about the inspiration for the song etc.

Best Wishes.

Sidewinder.

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 10:00 PM

Nice to know even Shatner has standards.

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Little Hawk
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 10:07 PM

Absolutely. Bill has class. No doubt about it.

Paul Anka can write some good stuff now and then...but when he's bad, he's just downright untouchable!

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 10:31 PM

Well, I don't think it changed the world nearly as much as Henry Gross's "Shannon", which could probably not be released today as the SPCA would see it as cruelty to animals. I saw it as cruelty to humans.

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: robomatic
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 10:48 PM

I felt the same exact way about 'Havin' My Baby as LH. And it was on again and again and again. Probably accounts for my fear of open spaces with top 40 music playing.

Other musical overloads:

"Torn Between Two Lovers" sung by Her Downunderness O N John. (Girlfriend said: "I don't know any guys who like tha song!"

"Why don't we get drunk and screw" by his parrotness aired over a lovely dining balcony while I was trying to have lunch with my parents during the Tall Ships in Boston. Fortunately didn't hear it again and his "My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink, and I Don't Love Jesus" almost made up for it.

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: alanabit
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 03:42 AM

I can't recall a turkey which I ever found less appetising - and I wasn't a veggie in those days.

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Little Hawk
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 10:25 AM

Olivia Newton-John had a real talent for releasing songs that make you grit your teeth. She really should have married Paul Anka. Think what they could have acheived together!

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Peter T.
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 10:39 AM

I would have thought "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" had done more damage to the moral universe than "Having My Baby", but I am willing to change my opinion depending of course on how the discussion here goes.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: John Hardly
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 10:44 AM

is this thing typing?

ONJ didn't do "Torn..."

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: alanabit
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 10:50 AM

Thinking about what ONJ and Paul Anka might have produced together is too gruesome to contemplate. It could have had his body and her intellect...

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: John Hardly
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 10:59 AM

Clearly you've never been to Xanadu.

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 11:06 AM

...and Paul Anka had a huge effect on jumpstarting the music careers of both Steve Goodman and John Prine. It's a good tale---and one that will be told well in Clay Eals' biography of Steve Goodman that will be available one of these years.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: robomatic
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 11:19 AM

I have done an injustice (well, been caught at it this time anyway)

I'm pretty sure ONJ was driving me crazy with some song in the mid 70's, but "Torn Between Two Lovers" is attributed to Mary MacGregor. And that song definitely put little crinkly lines in my coverlet of sanity.

Thank you John Hardly!

Once again, my apologies.

"When Will I See You Again" By the Three Degrees was another overplayed little number.

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Don Firth
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 11:53 AM

Anybody remember "Mairsy Doats?"

Don Firth

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Little Hawk
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 12:01 PM

"Stay With You Awhile" could gag a dead rat. I don't know who the hell recorded it, though.

"How he makes me quiver...."

UGH!

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: kirstenanderberg
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 12:06 PM

My stepmom ("Geri Anders") was a cheesy nightclub singer in the los angeles area in the 1960's through the 1980's and that song, Paul Anka's "Havin my baby" was in her repitoire. There is only one thing worse than the original recording of that song. And that is a 60 year old woman with very limited musical talent singing a schmaltzy piano bar (with rhythm machine accompaniment) version of the thing! Sends chills down my spine just remembering it. Thank god my own friends were not old enough to go see her "perform" in the nightclubs when I was in high school!!!

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Muskratpete
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 12:16 PM

Twas "The Bells" that recorded "Stay Awhile."

Here's another one to throw on the heap...

"I've got a never ending love for you...
    from now on, that's all I want to do...
from the first time we met I knew...
    I'd have this never ending love for you..."

forgot the artist...can't forget the song.

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: PoppaGator
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 12:59 PM

Sorry to have confused Neil Sedaka and Paul Anka ~ how could that possibly have happened? (he he)

Of course, since then, someone else confused one cheesy pop artist with another. Glad to see I'm not the only one...

Peter T's vote for "Yellow Ribbon" is a good point; very timely!

Don Firth, you must be not only older than me, but older than dirt itself! I've heard of "Mairsey Dotes," but it was popular long before I was born.

Kirstan, I'm truly sorry never to have witnessed your stepmother singing about some other woman having her baby; what a hoot!

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: GUEST,Sidewinder.
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 01:26 PM

Muskratpete your song was recorded by The New Seekers and titled "Never Ending Song Of Love" I have an old scratched copy of it on 45 somewhere. Not that I would ever want to find it though.

Regards.

Sidewinder.

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Little Hawk
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 01:28 PM

Yeah, Kirsten! Man, it's a shame that was never filmed, isn't it? Think what future generations are missing.

"Tie A Yellow Ribbon" is a maddening song. It could be used to torture prisoners and make them talk. George Bush should be told.

"Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head" is pretty annoying too. I wrote a really ridiculous parody of it called "Strange Girls Keep Landing in my Bed". It's a lot of fun to sing, and almost totally untrue in every detail.

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: kirstenanderberg
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 01:35 PM

LMAO! Yes, it sad to think what Kareoke bars are replacing nowadays! The old piano bar women...they are a dying breed...so yeah, now I am trying to figure out how in the world she reworded that...Having Our Baby? I would assume she sang it in first tense, "I'm a woman in love and I love what it's doing to me..." ????

Reminds me of a bad cover tune this guy used to sing when I was playing the lines at Grateful Dead shows and would break a string. While I would replace the string, he would sing "I'm just too good to be true, can't take your eyes off of me, I'd be like heaven to touch, you'd miss me so much...going out of your head over me..." It was always hilariously funny the way he would do it...

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: John Hardly
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 01:44 PM

"I've got a never ending love for you...
    from now on, that's all I want to do...
from the first time we met I knew...
    I'd have this never ending love for you..."

(also) Delaney, Bonnie & Friends

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 02:11 PM

Never heard of it.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Don Firth
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 02:19 PM

Bobby Goldsboro singing "Honey" would have me with my head in the porcelain receptacle just about every time.

"Strange girls. . . ." Words, Little Hawk! Words!! Please!!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Don Firth
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 02:26 PM

Speaking of porcelain receptacles:

To the tune of "Don't Get Around Much Anymore."

Missed the toilet last night.
Got it all on the floor.
Cleaned it up with my toothbrush.
Don't brush my teeth much anymore.

(Learned from Walt Robertson, 1954).

Don Firth

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: PoppaGator
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 02:27 PM

I'm surprised that Bobby Goldsboro's "Honey" wasn't mentioned earlier. May be the worst song ever released...

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Little Hawk
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 02:30 PM

Okay, Don. Here it is... ;-)

                                                            
Strange Girls                                              Key of C

Strange girls keep landing in my bed
But that doesn't mean to say my face is turning red
No matter what they said
I just wonder
After it's over and we're done
Did they like it, was it fun?
I wonder...Ooo-ooo

Strange girls from universities
Fresh out of college with their bachelor degrees
In humanities
It makes me wonder
Why are they knocking on my door
Sitting on my bedroom floor
Why are they here? What is it for?
What can it be?
Why are they worrying me?

Strange girls are camping in the yard
I'd have to say that things are getting pretty hard
I could be disbarred
If I were a judge or a lawyer
Or a fat politician with a hat
But I'm not (thank God for that)
At least I'm free
But it's worrying me

Strange girls are swimming in the pool
Strange little Chinese girls that make me lose my cool
I'm acting like a fool
And still I wonder
Why did they come and who are they?
Did they come from far away?
Will they go or will they stay?
Who can they be?
It's really worrying me







Strange girls are kicking down the door
Strange girls from Mexico and I don't know what for
Could it be amor?
There's another strange Senorita in the hall
Ay, chiquita! That's not all!
She does the Mexicali crawl!
What can it be?
It's really worrying me

Strange girls are hiding in the hedge
They're in the alleyway, they're on my window ledge
I found one in the fridge (but she wasn't frigid)
She was from Sevastopol
A spy who came in from the cold
I said "If I may be so bold, why pick on me?
I'm very busy, you see."

Strange voices ringing in my ears
Faces I've never seen, from where do they appear?
Then they disappear....where do they go?
Strange girls from Jupiter and Mars
Driving little foreign cars
They must think that I'm a star
Who can they be?
Why are they worrying me?

Strange girls keep landing in my bed
I'm up all hours, I'm so tired I'm half dead!
Besides, it's like I said
Strange girls in designer jeans
Tapping on my window screens
What do they want? What can it mean?
Oh, tell me please
Why are they worrying me?
Who can they be?

Copyright © 1995   George Coventry
Lyrics by George Coventry (to the tune of "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head")

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: frogprince
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 02:33 PM

In one small, backhanded, way, I have a fond memory of "HMB"; a strange, creepy woman co-worker leaped to the conclusion that it was a song glorifying non-marital parenthood, and denounced it as "the filthiest song ever written". So the song served the purpose of helping her make a fool of herself. Apart from that, yeeesh, indeed.

Did "I've Never Been to Me" come out fairly close to the same time, or do those two songs just stick together in my mind because they're both so oozey?

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Cool Beans
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 03:00 PM

And what was that godawful, sappy song that went "When you're born a woman you're born to to be lied to, laughed at, cheated on and treated like dirt"?   Eeew.
Wasn't there a WORST SONGS EVER thread on Mudcat? I bet we're going over old ground.

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Little Hawk
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 03:09 PM

"I've Never Been To Me" stands alone. You have to hear the whole thing to believe it. Truly astounding, mind-numbing, downright blithering incredible. She should've received some kind of lifetime achievement award, whoever she was... ;-)

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Don Firth
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 03:27 PM

Thanks, Little Hawk. That's gonna go into the repertoire.

A fellow named Dallas Williams who used to sing fairly regularly in one of Seattle's coffeehouses back in the Sixties occasionally cranked out a parody or two. One of his best, in the tradition of "Teen Angel" was entitled "Teen Leper."

Great images. How one sentimental night she had given him her thumb   And in the talking section, while we were softly going "Doo-wah, doo-wah" in the background, such lines as. "My parents told me I should stay away from her because she has leprosy. But I said, 'Gee, Mom and Dad, all teenagers have complexion problems. . . ."

Older than dirt? Yeah. I even remember hearing an eleven-year-old girl who went by the name of Bubbles Silberman on the radio, singing the jingle in the soap commercial, "Rinso White! Rinso White! Happy little washday song!" That was awhile back. She retired from singing a few years ago and is now general manager of New York City Opera. She's better known as Beverly Sills.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: alanabit
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 03:35 PM

There were a couple of worst songs ever threads on Mudcat a few years back. Bloody hilarious they were, too. Maurice Albert's "Feelings" came in as a very serious contender. It was indeed horrible, but I get the impression that our American cousins were shielded from Boney M.... Don't start me on Boney M, because I am a gentle person really!

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: John Hardly
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 05:19 PM

y'all have certainly contributed horrid ear worms to the conversation, but really, has there ever been a worse lyric accepted by pop music than...

When I saw you standin' there
I 'bout fell off my chair
And when you moved your mouth to speak
I felt the blood go to my feet

I mean, there should be a Horrid Lyric Index, whereby lyrics intentionally stupid (like mairsey dotes) are not judged by the same rule as the unintentional (like Lobo's).

Whenever "worst movies of the year" shows are run, they rarely highlight bad "B" movies. No, they usually highlight movies who hit the furthest below their intended target of "Art".

"Having My Baby" was "aiming high" (well, for sentimentalism anyway). It was intended as serious. That's why it is truly wretched.

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 05:49 PM

If "Humanoid", "Yodel", "Rolling Stone" and "Baby" each "changed the world", it appears the world isn't very stable.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Peter T.
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 06:13 PM

We have had many, many worst song threads, contests, etc. They were all fun. Though there are some substantial more recent contenders. Anyone watch MTV these days -- omigod.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: M.Ted
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 06:57 PM

The thing about YHMB is that it was (and is) a towering bit of egotism--the idea is that" you" are having "my" baby--not "our" baby--but mine--from the man who wrote "My Way" anyone see a pattern?--and, from those who have met him and worked with him, the word comes that the man seems to be like that in real life too--and let us not forget his partner in this, one Odia Coates, who sounded more like Odious Goats--

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 08:08 PM

Minni Ripperton, Loving You (Is easy 'cuz you're beautiful).

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Cluin
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 08:13 PM

"Midnight at the Oasis" used to make me blush, when it came on the radio and my parents were around.

Then Donna Summer came out with "Luv to Luv Ya, Baby"

Subject: RE: 'Havin' My Baby' changed the World
From: Cool Beans
Date: 18 Aug 05 - 09:18 AM

Hey, Don Firth! Didja know that young Bubbles Silverman was on the same radio program as young Ronnie Gilbert? It was called something like "Backyard Gang." I can look it up.
Betcha neither one knows the words to "Havin' My Baby."