Baby Talk

I love Motown and many of the decades of music that came before today--or before my birth for that matter. I am a sucker for the oldies and for an old fashioned kind of romance. Is there any better kind?

Having stated the obvious, I figure we are due for another one of my lists. Tonight's, while quite simple in nature and perhaps a little quixotic in its theme, is merely a love letter to some of the best love songs of all time. When you think of any of these amorous ballads, surely the perennial words come to mind: darling, you, true, love, sha la, la, la, la, and so on and so forth. But there is one word so ubiquitous in all the great love songs that yes, it warrants its own list. That word, my friends, is baby.

And without further ado, my list of the greatest songs having baby in the title:

(1) Be My Baby by The Ronettes Apparently there is a song that can remind me of 1987 and 1963. This was the song that made me really want a first kiss. Ooh, ooh, ooh, oh.

(2) Baby It's You by The Beatles or The Shirelles It conjures an image of a little boy staring out the window thinking of his great love. It's like a Norman Rockwell painting for your ears.

(3) Hey! Baby by Bruce Channel Have you seen Dirty Dancing? If the log scene doesn't put a smile on your face, there are hot coals clogging your arteries.

(4) Baby Love by The Supremes Do I really have to justify this one? I didn't think so.

(5) Always Be My Baby by Mariah Carey It reminds me of my friends--and if you have good friends like I do, then there's nothing wrong with that.

(6) Take Good Care of My Baby by Dion It makes me blue--and I'm a firm believer that you need some blue to get some red.

(7) Merry, Merry Christmas Baby by Dodie Stevens It will haunt your mind, make you first think you lived during the golden age of the 1950s and then when you realize you weren't, it will make you wish you were, in fact, born in that era.

(8) Baby I Love Your Way by Peter Frampton It makes me proud to have been a teenager in the '90s and it makes me think of when I was a teenager dreaming of having a date in a romantic tropical environment. Any song that can recapture adolescent dreams is okay in my book.

(9) Cry Baby by Janis Joplin It just makes you feel like you're in the right when it comes to heartbreak and that he should have gone with 'door number one.' It's bitter sweet and beautiful.

(10) Baby Hold On by Eddie Money It's sad and happy at the same time. I don't know why I like it so much. It's just a feeling. And that's all I have to say about that.