“Kissa Me Baby”

One of Ray Charles’ final recordings for Swing Time was “Kissa Me Baby”, a zesty and rambunctious song that Ray himself wrote. It was recorded in a November 1951 session and was released on a 10″ 78 rpm disc in March 1952 as Swing Time 274 A+. (As far as I can tell, the plus sign on Swing Time labels meant that’s the preferred side; both were “A”.) The record’s other side was “I’m Glad For Your Sake”.

By the time of “Kissa Me Baby”, Ray had moved on from his days as a nameless member of the McSon Trio; his name appears three times on this one label alone:

RAY CHARLES
Sings
KISSA ME BABY
(Ray Charles)
RAY CHARLES
and
Orchestra

“Kissa Me Baby” is a haphazard series of come-on lines and entreaties to a woman to surrender to him physically. Big and bold trumpets and saxes drive the performance, and Ray’s voice drips with humor and hope. He isn’t expecting the girl to believe his winking promises of marrying her and providing for their children, he just wants her to appreciate the directness and righteous yearning of his effort.

The overall impression is that if she says no, it’s no big deal and he’ll move on. Confidence and youthful vigor inform “Kissa Me Baby”, and its simple 12-bar blues form and shouted response vocals in the background (“all night long!”) leave no sense of complexity in the music or in the singer’s riotous message.

“Kissa Me Baby” was one of three songs chosen from Ray’s pre-Atlantic 78 rpm career for the Genius + Soul 5CD box set. Otherwise, original copies of this 78 are harder to find than other of Ray’s discs from the era, but as Ray apparently never owned the rights to these recordings, it has appeared on countless quasi-bootleg LPs and CDs over the years. Sometimes it is erroneously known by other titles, such as “All Night Long”.

Look for an original copy of the 78, or break down and find a recent CD compilation such as Complete Recordings 1948-1959.

Single releases

Listen to “Kissa Me Baby”

Get your own “Kissa Me Baby” on 45 or MP3 from Amazon.