{{short description|1979 single by Wings}} {{Infobox song | name = Baby's Request | image = Baby's Request cover.jpg | caption = Single cover with image from the music video | type = single | artist = Wings | album = Back to the Egg | A-side = "Getting Closer" | recorded = 17 October 1978 | studio = Abbey Road Studios, London | released = 17 August 1979 | length = 2:12 | label = * Parlophone | writer = Paul McCartney | producer = *Paul McCartney *Chris Thomas | prev_title = Old Siam, Sir | prev_year = 1979 | next_title = Arrow Through Me | next_year = 1979 }} '''"Baby's Request"''' is a song written by Paul McCartney that was first released on Wings' 1979 album ''Back to the Egg''. It was also released as a double-A sided single with "Getting Closer" in the UK. A version was also included on the deluxe edition of McCartney's 2012 solo album ''Kisses on the Bottom''.
==Background== McCartney originally wrote the song in hopes that the Mills Brothers, a group that was most popular in the 1930s and 1940s, would record it.<ref name=blaney>{{cite book|title=Lennon and McCartney: together alone: a critical discography of their solo work|author=Blaney, John|pages=131–132|year=2007|publisher=Jawbone Press|isbn=9781906002022}}</ref><ref name=legacy>{{cite book|title=The McCartney Legacy: Volume 2 1974=80|author1=Kozinn, Allan|author2=Sinclair, Adrian|year=2024|pages=605, 625–627, 641, 664–665, 683|publisher=Dey Street Books|isbn= 9780063000759}}</ref><ref name=words>{{cite book |author=Benitez, Vincent P. |title=The Words and Music of Paul McCartney: The Solo Years |publisher=Praeger |year=2010 |isbn=9780313349690 |page=95}}</ref> Paul had been a fan of the Mills brothers as a child, and when he and Linda McCartney attended a Mills Brothers concert in Nice, France in August 1978, they met the band backstage afterwards and one of the brothers suggested he write a song for them.<ref name=legacy/>
Wings initially recorded the song during the ''Back to the Egg'' sessions on 16 October 1978, although it was intended as a demo for the Mills Brothers and not for the album itself.<ref name=legacy/> Another version was recorded on 17 October.<ref name=legacy/> McCartne's lead vocal vocals and his, Linda's and Denny Laine's harmony vocals were overdubbed on 19 October.<ref name=legacy/> Paul also overdubbed a synthesizer reproducing a trombone solo between the two bridges of the song, despite trombonist Don Lusher recording in the studio next door.<ref name=legacy/>
However, when Paul sent the Mills Brothers the demo, their manager responded by saying that that would record the song if Paul paid then $1000.<ref name=legacy/><ref name=words/> Since Paul had not expected to have to pay to have the song covered, he decided to use it on ''Back to the Egg'' instead, where it replaced a song that had been recorded called "Cage".<ref name=blaney/><ref name=legacy/><ref name=words/> He mixed the song for the album on 26 February 1979.<ref name=legacy/>
==Music and lyrics== "Baby's Request" is in the key of G major.<ref name=words/> The structure begins with an intro, followed by two verses, then a bridge, then the synthesizer solo imitating a trombone using the verse melody, then another brige and finally one more verse.<ref name=words/> The music uses a 1930s and 1940s retro swing band style, similar to that McCartney had used for songs such as "Honey Pie" and "You Gave Me the Answer".<ref name=legacy/><ref name=something>{{cite web|title=Paul McCartney’s attempt to revitalize Wings with ‘Back to the Egg’ fell just short|date=8 June 2015|author1=DeRiso, Nick|author2=Aaron, S. Victor|author3=Paterson, Beverly|accessdate=2026-05-22|publisher=Something Else!|url=https://somethingelsereviews.com/2015/06/08/paul-mccartney-wings-back-to-the-egg/}}</ref> It also has a jazz feel, which is accomplished using elements such as augmented triads, seventh chords and ninth chords.<ref name=legacy/><ref name=words/> McCartney biographer John Blaney noted that the Wings' new guitarist at the time, Laurence Juber had played in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and credits some of the jazz phrasing to him.<ref name=blaney/> McCartney biographers Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair described the melody as "gentle" and "eminently croonable".<ref name=legacy/> The melody of the verses has a large range of notes, from low D to high E.<ref name=words/>
Rather than play his electric bass, Paul played his Bill Black double bass.<ref name=legacy/> Denny Laine played piano, Juber played his Gibson ES-335 guitar and Steve Holley contributed to the 1930s/1940s feel by playing drums using brushes.<ref name=legacy/>
The lyrics of "Baby's Request" describe a man whose children are all grown up asking a cocktail pianist to play a song that his wife liked years ago when they first met.<ref name=legacy/> The lyrics have the imagery that could have been in a song from 40 years earlier, such as the opening lines: "When the moon lays his head on a pillow/And the stars settle down for a rest/Just do me one small favor, I beg you/Please play me my baby's request".<ref name=legacy/> In the bridges the singer tells the band that although his wife knows the melody, the band knows it even better so if they play the song he and his wife can go to bed with their memories.<ref name=words/>
==Reception== George Harrison visited the recording studio while the band was recording "Baby's Request" and said "Oh, that's nice. I like that."<ref name=legacy/> ''Something Else!'' critic S. Victor Aaron said that "Paul McCartney’s done much worse when he’s done songs in the style of his parents’ music" but regarded using the synthesizer instead of an actual trombone "unforgivable".<ref name=something/> Fellow ''Something Else!'' critic Nick DeRiso called it a "prosaic swing-band pastiche' and said it sounded "hopelessly, devastatingly old-timey."<ref name=something/> ''Melody Maker'' critic Ian Birch reviewed the single release saying that the song "is another of those doe-eyed McCartney pastiches, a nightclub soft-shoe shuffle with staggeringly inane lyrics."<ref name=legacy/> Reviewing the single, ''NME'' critics Roy Carr and Tony Tyler called it "an interesting example of the way McCartney has totally mastered the style of Hoagy Carmichael", saying that it is a curiosity that is "worth at least one listen."<ref>{{cite book|title=The Beatles: An illustrated record|author=Carr, Roy|author2=Tyler, Tony|name-list-style=amp|page=127|year=1981|publisher=Harmony Books|isbn=0517544938}}</ref>
==Music video== Keith McMillan shot a promotional video for "Baby's Request" on 15 June 1979 at Camber Sands in East Sussex, England.<ref name=legacy/> The set was designed as an army encampment, with jeeps armored vehicles and tents.<ref name=legacy/><ref name=solo>{{cite book|title=Solo in the 70s|pages=273–274|author=Rodriguez, Robert|year=2014|publisher=Parading Press|isbn=9780989255509}}</ref> The band wore World War II uniforms and mimed the song as if they were 1940s stars performing to entertain soldiers fighting in the desert in North Africa.<ref name=legacy/><ref name=words/><ref name=solo/> In the video, Linda McCartney, rather than Paul, is seen playing the Bill Black double bass.<ref name=legacy/><ref name=solo/>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Wings}} {{Wings songs}}
Category:1979 songs Category:Songs written by Paul McCartney Category:Song recordings produced by Paul McCartney Category:Paul McCartney and Wings songs Category:Music published by MPL Music Publishing Category:Paul McCartney songs