Baby Let Me Take You Home
"Baby Let Me Take You Home", a song credited to Bert Russell (a.k.a. Bert Berns) and Wes Farrell, was The Animals' debut single, released in 1964. In the UK, it reached #21 on the pop singles chart. In the U.S. its B-side, "Gonna Send You Back to Walker" (retitled "to Georgia"), was released but was not a significant hit, placing only at #57 on the pop singles chart. American soul singer Hoagy Lands previously recorded the song in 1964 as "Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand", released on Atlantic 2217.
| "Baby Let Me Take You Home" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by The Animals | ||||
| from the album The Animals | ||||
| B-side | "Gonna Send You Back to Walker" | |||
| Released | March 1964 (UK), August 1964 (USA) | |||
| Recorded | 12 February 1964 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 2:19 | |||
| Label | Columbia (EMI) (UK) MGM Records (USA) | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Wes Farrell Bert Russell | |||
| Producer(s) | Mickie Most | |||
| The Animals singles chronology | ||||
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The song is an arrangement of Eric Von Schmidt's rendering of "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down" as covered by Bob Dylan, on his first, self-titled, album. The Animals' version opens with striking unaccompanied guitar arpeggios, inserts a middle section with spoken words over an organ riff and closes with a frantic double-time coda. The result was a key influence on Dylan's change to electric music and to the folk-rock genre.
In 2006, Eric Burdon, of The Animals, began to perform the song in a heavier version, on his concerts again, adding a short story how they came to it.
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