Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby

"Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" is a rockabilly song credited to Carl Perkins. Based on a 1934 song written by singer/songwriter Rex Griffin, it achieved widespread popularity when it was released in 1957 by Carl Perkins and covered by the Beatles in 1964.

Background

It borrows from a song with the same title, chorus and verses written in the mid-1930s by Alabama-born country songwriter Rex Griffin. Griffin recorded the song for Decca Records in 1936 under the title "Everybody's Tryin' To Be My Baby". Roy Newman and His Boys recorded a song with the same title in 1938. Perkins recorded his song with the same title with similar music but an updated arrangement in 1956 for Sun Records. The Perkins song was featured on the 1957 Sun LP Dance Album of Carl Perkins, which was also released in the UK on London. The album was later re-released as Teen Beat: The Best of Carl Perkins. Perkins' recording was subsequently covered by the Beatles in 1964. The Beatles' recording, the best-known version of the song, is attributed to Carl Perkins.^[1] Lyrically, the Perkins and Griffin songs are similar, but musically, the arrangement is more modern. The melody, later used in Rock Around the Clock, was also borrowed by Hank Williams for Move It On Over and Mind Your Own Business. The Carl Perkins song is more blues-based and closer to "Blue Suede Shoes" in style.

The recording was re-released on the 1961 Sun Records album Teen Beat: The Best of Carl Perkins, Carl Perkins' Original Golden Hits by Sun International in 1969, Original Sun Greatest Hits by Rhino Records in 1986, Blues Suede Shoes: A Rockabilly Session, and on a Rhino Records CD EP Lil' Bit of Gold in 1988.

The Beatles' version

1964 South African sheet music cover for the Beatles' recording on Parlophone, Belinda, Johannesburg.

After 1964, the Carl Perkins song became well known in the version recorded by the Beatles. The Beatles recorded "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" on 18 October 1964 at EMI Studios, London, with George Harrison (a lifelong fan of Perkins) on vocals.^[1] Harrison's vocals were heavily processed with the STEED effect.^[2] It was first released as the final track on Beatles for Sale in the United Kingdom later that year,^[2][3] and likewise as the concluding track on the North American album Beatles '65.^[4]

The Beatles' recording finishes with a false ending, with the final phrase repeating itself after the song seems to have stopped. A version recorded live at the Star-Club in Hamburg in December 1962 contained four of these musical phrases.^[2]

Live performances of the Beatles' "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" were recorded in June 1963 for the BBC radio program Pop Go The Beatles, and in November 1964 for Saturday Club. The latter recording can be heard on Live at the BBC.^[2]

The Beatles continued to perform the song after their studio recording was released. The song was performed in Paris, France in 1965. The performance recorded at Shea Stadium on 15 August 1965 was included on Anthology 2.

In 1976, Capitol released the song on the compilation album Rock 'n' Roll Music.^[5]

George Harrison performed the song with Carl Perkins on the Cinemax cable special Blue Suede Shoes: A Rockabilly Session in 1985. Bruce Springsteen performed the song live in concert in 1998 as a tribute to Carl Perkins on news of his death. Johnny Cash recorded the song on the 2003 album Unearthed backed by Carl Perkins and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.^[6]

Paul McCartney administers the rights to the Carl Perkins song catalogue through MPL Communications.

In 2016, the song was featured as a bonus track on the remastered Live at the Hollywood Bowl album in a live performance from August 30, 1965 in conjunction with the release of the Ron Howard concert film The Beatles: Eight Days a Week.^[7][8]

References