Bad Girl (The Miracles song)

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"Bad Girl"
Berry Gordy, Jr.
The Miracles singles chronology
"It"
(1959)
"Bad Girl"
(1959)
"The Feeling Is So Fine" / "(You Can) Depend on Me"
(1959)

"Bad Girl" is a 1959

Tamla label. Although The Miracles had charted regionally and on the R&B charts with several earlier songs, including "Got a Job", "I Cry", "I Need a Change", and "(You Can) Depend on Me", "Bad Girl" was their first national chart hit, reaching #93 on the Billboard Hot 100. Written by Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson and Motown Records' President and Founder Berry Gordy
, "Bad Girl" is a sad, remorseful ballad about a young woman, whom Robinson, as the narrator, says "was so good at the start", but who later in the song "is breaking my heart". It is in the popular doo-wop style, as several of The Miracles' songs were during the late 1950s. The record's success, coupled with the distributor's failure to pay Gordy and The Miracles properly for its sales, prompted Robinson to urge Gordy to "go national" with it, meaning that Motown should do its own national distribution of its songs, and eliminate the middleman, to ensure that all money from sales of its records would go directly to the label.

On the

Honi Coles
. Ray Charles intervened, took the group under his wing, and, with his band, created arrangements for their songs. Charles was one of the first to help them on their climb to eventual success.

"Bad Girl" has since become a doo-wop classic and was named one of the 100 Greatest Doo-Wop Songs of All Time by Doo Wop Nation.

Greatest Hits from the Beginning. The song was also performed by the group on their final live album, 1957–1972. It has been covered by the Dazz Band, Jackie Jackson and by fellow Motown artist Mary Wells, whose version was called "Bad Boy" and appeared on her debut album, Bye Bye Baby I Don't Want to Take a Chance
.

Personnel

References

  1. ^ The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 1: 1959-1961, CD liner notes, New York: Hip-O Select/Motown/Universal Records.
  2. ^ "Top 100 Doo Wop Records Of All Time - Part 2". Home.earthlink.net. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2016-08-29.
  3. ^ The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 1: 1959-1961 [liner notes]. New York: Hip-O Select/Motown/Universal Records

Other sources

  • Smokey Robinson & The Miracles:
    The Definitive Performances 1963-1987
  • Smokey: Inside My Life (autobiography), McGraw-Hill, (1989) by Smokey Robinson and David Ritz, pp. 84–86.
  • Doo Wop Nation's Top 100 Doo-Wop Songs of All Time

External links