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Oh Me Oh My (I'm a Fool for You Baby)
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Wikipedia article
"'Oh Me Oh My (I'm a Fool for You Baby)'" is the title of a Top 30 hit single for Lulu which was recorded in September 1969 in the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio sessions for Lulu's Atco Records album debut 'New Routes'. The song has been most notably remade by Aretha Franklin, The Raes, Buster Poindexter, Tina Arena, and Ronnie Spector on 'English Heart' (2016).
Lulu version
Lulu would later opine of Atlantic Record honchos Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin, the producers of her album 'New Routes': "I don't think they knew what to do with me, and the only big hit I got [off the album] was a song that I [brought in] with me" - referring to "Oh Me Oh My ...", which had been written by Jim Doris who as Jimmy Doris had been vocalist-guitarist for the Stoics, a band which formed in Lulu's native Glasgow in the late 1960s and whose membership had included Frankie Miller. (Doris helped contribute another song to 'New Routes': "After All (I Live My Life)" - co-written with Miller - and his composition "Take Good Care of Yourself" was featured on the follow-up album 'Melody Fair'. Reportedly, Doris subsequently went into A&R work before being sidelined by mental instability, which may have been a factor in his being killed when run over by a bus in London in the late 1980s or early 1990s.
Issued as advance single from 'New Routes' in October 1969, "Oh Me Oh My ..." represented a radical change of direction for Lulu, who was coming off her best ever UK chart placing at #2 with the Eurovision winner "Boom Bang-a-Bang". The move to a more mature sound with "Oh Me Oh My ..." was unappreciated in the UK where the track barely reached the Top 50. In the US, "Oh Me Oh My ..." ranked as high as #4 in Birmingham, Alabama in November 1969, but charted nationally as only a moderate Easy Listening hit at #36. Several performances by Lulu on US television helped break "Oh Me Oh My ..." into the 'Billboard' Hot 100 in December 1969, and then buoyed the track as it gradually gained momentum, so that at the end of February 1970, it became Lulu's first Top 30 hit since "To Sir with Love". "Oh Me Oh My ..." peaked at #22 that March. In 'Cash Box' it achieved a #18 peak.
In Australia the 'Go-Set' Top 40 chart showed "Oh Me Oh My ..." peaking at #33 in January 1970. The 'RPM' 100 chart for Canada ranked "Oh Me Oh My ..." as high as #16 in March 1970. That same month the 'New Zealand Listener' Pop-o-meter chart ranked "Oh Me Oh My ..." as high as #12.
Lulu recorded a translated version of "Oh Me Oh My ..." for release in Italy, entitled "Povera Me"; the track was released in June 1970 to no apparent attention, despite a promotional junket by Lulu that July.
Chart performance
Aretha Franklin version
Aretha Franklin cut a version of "Oh Me Oh My (I'm a Fool For You Baby)" for her 1972 'Young, Gifted and Black' album which like Lulu's 'New Routes' was produced by Arif Mardin, Jerry Wexler and Tom Dowd. Franklin's first studio album of new material since 'Spirit in the Dark' in 1970, 'Young, Gifted and Black' demonstrated Franklin's increasing penchant for covering pop songs and besides Lulu's "Oh Me Oh My..." Franklin gave R&B readings to songs made famous by Dusty Springfield and Dionne Warwick, specifically "A Brand New Me" and "April Fools". "Oh Me Oh My..." was used as the B-side for the album's lead single "Rock Steady", eventually receiving enough focus to reach #9 on the R&B charts crossing over to #73 Pop.
Tina Arena version
"'Oh Me, Oh My'" was remade in 2008 by Tina Arena for her 'Songs of Love & Loss 2' album recorded at AIR Lyndhurst Hall in London accompanied by conductor Simon Hale and the London Studio Orchestra in July 2008. Arena's version entitled "Oh Me, Oh My" without the subtitle in parentheses was issued as the album's single in digital format on November 8, 2008 by EMI Australia.[http://tinaarena.com/index.php?module=discography Tina Arena Discography]. 'Tina Arena official website'. Retrieved on 25 October 2008.
Other versions
"Oh Me Oh My (I'm a Fool For You Baby)" has also been recorded by Oleta Adams, Beth Hart, Barbara Mason, Bill Medley, Buster Poindexter, Joe Tex, Irma Thomas and as "Oh Me Oh My" by Ann Austin, Lloyd Terrell, Renee Geyer, Rod McKuen, Benny Mardones for his 1981 album "Too Much to Lose", The Raes, B.J. Thomas and Lisa Hartman; the last named performed an abbreviated version of the song in the 1981 miniseries 'Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls'.
Notes
References
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