It wouldn’t take long to write down everything I know about this song, or the girl who sang it. At the height of punk, Stiff Records had a hit single with B-A-B-Y, sung by a 15-year-old girl from Akron, Ohio called Rachel Sweet.
That’s it.
It turns out there’s lots more to say about Rachel, whom Stiff regrettably marketed as a Lolita-like “jailbait country singer” and, according to Wiki, later promoted her as “a leather-clad child abductor.” I think they made that bit up.
Anyway, I was much taken with B-A-B-Y when it came out at the end of 1978, sandwiched between singles by Ian Dury and Wreckless Eric. I have it on a picture disc and I went on to buy (or blag) her album, Fool Around.
What I did not know then was that this charming country-soul tune by “the little girl with the big voice” was written in 1966 by soul legend Isaac Hayes and first released on Stax by Carla Thomas.
Nor did I know that Rachel had been a child star. By the time she was six she was recording jingles for ads, then touring with Mickey Rooney and opening for Bill Cosby in Vegas.
And by 12 she was putting out a string of country singles (including the memorably titled The Ballad Of Mable Ruth Miller And John Wesley Pritchett).
In 1978 one of them reached Stiff Records. It came courtesy of local Akron songwriter Liam Sternberg while he was compiling ‘The Akron Sound’ compilation that introduced UK audiences to Devo, The Waitresses and his own band, Jane Aire & The Belvederes.
Next thing you know, Rachel was dropping out of high school in Ohio and recording an album in London with backing from The Rumour before joining her label’s Be Stiff package tour, performing while backed by The Records.
A few short years later, after turning 20, Rachel retired from the music business to belatedly complete her education, returning sporadically to music – most notably to sing the title track to two John Waters films, Hairspray and Cry-Baby – before turning to acting.
After a small role in Seinfeld, she focused more on writing and producing in film and television – successfully enough for her to buy Madonna’s mansion in Los Feliz for $5 million.