them \" baby please don't go \" mono to stereo single.
\"Baby Please Don't Go\" was one of the earliest songs recorded by Them, fronted by a 19-year-old Van Morrison. Their rendition of the song was derived from a version recorded by John Lee Hooker in 1949 as \"Don't Go Baby\".Hooker's song later appeared on a 1959 album, Highway of Blues, which Van Morrison heard and felt was \"something really unique and different\" with \"more soul\" than he had previously heard.
Them recorded \"Baby, Please Don't Go\" for Decca Records in October 1964. Besides Morrison, there is conflicting information about who participated in the session. In addition to the group's original members (guitarist Billy Harrison, bassist Alan Henderson, drummer Ronnie Millings, and keyboard player Eric Wrixon), others have been suggested: Pat McAuley on keyboards, Bobby Graham on a second drum kit, Jimmy Page on second guitar,[20] and Peter Bardens on keyboards. As Page biographer George Case notes, \"There is a dispute over whether it is Page's piercing blues line that defines the song, if he only played a run Harrison had already devised, or if Page only backed up Harrison himself\". Morrison has acknowledged Page's participation in the early sessions: \"He played rhythm guitar on one thing and doubled a bass riff on the other\" and Morrison biographer Johnny Rogan notes that Page \"doubled the distinctive riff already worked out by Billy Harrison\".
Janovitz identifies the riff as \"the backbone of the arrangement\" and describes Henderson's contribution as an \"amphetamine-rush, pulsing two-note bass line.\" Music critic Greil Marcus comments that during the song's quieter middle passage \"the guitarist, session player Jimmy Page or not, seems to be feeling his way into another song, flipping half-riffs, high, random, distracted metal shavings\". Them's blues rock arrangement is \"now regarded justly as definitive\", according to music writer Alan Clayson.
\"Baby, Please Don't Go\" was released as Them's second single on November 6, 1964. With the B-side, \"Gloria\", it became their first hit, reaching number ten on the UK Singles Chart in February 1965. The single was released in the US in 1965, but only \"Gloria\" became a hit the following year. The song was not included on Them's original British or American albums (The Angry Young Them and Them Again), however, it has appeared on several compilation albums, such as The Story of Them Featuring Van Morrison and The Best of Van Morrison.When it was reissued in 1991 as a single in the UK, it reached number 65 in the chart.
