Oh, Baby

Above: David Miller with Diana Ross (in white) and Florence Ballard, two-thirds of the Supremes, who scored a big hit when they recorded "Baby Love" in 1964. This photo was taken in the Bahamas in 1966.

It's amazing how many songs were written about babies. By far the greatest majority refer to adults, songs like "Walkin' my baby back home" and "Is you is or is you ain't my baby?" Of course there were a few songs that didn't fit the pattern. Henry Mancini wrote a jaunty piece that he called the baby elephant walk. And there was "Baby mine," a tender lullaby sung to Dumbo by his mother in the Disney film. It's interesting, isn't it, that Glenn Miller recorded that tune with a vocal by Ray Eberle. If you didn't listen closely to the lyrics, you might well have figured that it was a love song to his sweetheart.

The tunes included on this episode only scratch the surface of the topic. I could have easily filled four hours with songs with "baby" in the title, but with the limits of time I've selected those that I consider among the best.