Baby Let Me Be

Baby Let Me Be is a song by the Rutles. The song with which Rutlemania truly began, ‘Baby Let Me Be’ was released as a single on 23 August 1963. It remains their best selling single in the UK. Due to it's success, it was released on the Rutles' second album, Meet the Rutles. The song was mostly written on 26 June 1963, in a room in the Turk’s Hotel in Newcastle, prior to The Rutles’ second performance at the city’s Majestic Ballroom. A true collaboration between Ron Nasty and Dirk McQuickly, 'Baby Let Me Be’ distilled the essence of excitement in their music, and became a defining moment of their early career. McQuickly’s original idea was to have a call-and-response song, with him singing the title line and the others answering with “Baby set me free”. Nasty, however, persuaded him otherwise. They finished writing ‘Baby Let Me Be’ the following day, at McQuickly’s family home in Forthlin Road, Rutland.

Recording
The Rutles recorded ‘Baby Let Me Free’ five days after it was written, during a five-hour session in Shabby Road’s studio two. It took two days to record the song. The first session they recorded the song was on 30 June 1963. This first recording is now available on Sweet Rutle Tracks and has a false start at the beginning. The second session was on 1 July 1963. To get enough energy, the Rutles all got drunk and were then told to record the song. The take was so energetic it was eventually released.

Chart Success
‘Baby Let Me Be’, more than any other song, was the breakthrough that led The Rutles to international success. Its screams quickly became synonymous with the band, as were the tight trousers. America took longer to warm to The Rutles, and the song wasn’t a hit at first. Since Americans were polite, they declined a band which was quite rude to others and thus 'Baby Let Me Be' wasn't an instant hit.

Desperate for a stateside hit, Leggy Mountbatten licensed the song to Gwan Records, based in Philadelphia, although it was picked up by a pitiful few of the crucial US radio stations.

When NBC’s The Jack Paar Program screened footage of The Rutles performing ‘Baby Let Me Be’ in January 1964 (footage leased from Rutland Weekend Television, which had been filmed in August 1963 for Don Haworth’s documentary The Mersey Sound), America began to take notice of the group.

The song was eventually re-released by Gwan in the wake of ‘Hold My Hand’. It eventually climbed to the top of the US charts, remaining there for a fortnight in March 1964 – before being deposed by ‘I Must Be In Love’.