Some artists make a record so perfect that it ensures they’ll be remembered for all time — or at the very least, that they will deserve to be remembered for all time. Bruce Channel is one of those artists, and “Hey Baby” is his record.
First things first: the guy’s name is pronounced “sha-NELL,” and not like the English Channel. It is not the name he was born with in Jacksonville, Texas — his last name was McMeans. He wrote “Hey Baby” in 1959 and performed it regularly for a couple of years before he recorded it. The recording features a harmonica player named Delbert McClinton, whose career would eventually far eclipse that of Channel. Released on a local Fort Worth, Texas, label, it was picked up by the Mercury subsidiary Smash for national release, and would hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week in 1962 — exactly 50 years ago.
One person who really liked “Hey Baby” was John Lennon, and he must have been particularly thrilled when the Beatles found themselves on a bill with Channel one night in June 1962. Lennon was particularly a fan of McClinton’s harmonica, a sound he would adopt on “Love Me Do.”
Channel never returned to the Top 40 after “Hey Baby,” although his followup release, “Number One Man,” got a fair amount of airplay. By the late ’70s, Channel was in Nashville, writing songs for country artists. He’s still in Nashville today, and his song remains one of the most recognizable oldies of the pre-Beatle ’60s, 50 years on.
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