“My Baby Loves Lovin'” (White Plains)

Our next classic 1970 song of the day was on the charts the same time as yesterday’s song, “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes).” Plus, they had the same lead singer. Today’s song is “My Baby Loves Lovin'” by the group called White Plains. It was released on January 2, 1970, and peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 (and #9 on the UK Singles chart) on June 27th. That’s a long, slow rise to the top—which meant we got to hear it for even longer on the radio, which was a good thing.

“My Baby Loves Lovin'” was written by British hitmakers Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway. Together and separately the two Rogers wrote and produced hits like “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” for the New Seekers (and Coca Cola!), “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” for the Hollies, “I Was Kaiser Bill’s Batman” for Whistling Jack Smith, “You’ve Got Your Troubles” for the Fortunes, and “Green Grass” for Gary Lewis & the Playboys. They were the real deal.

White Plains was a real band, too, unlike Edison Lighthouse, the studio-concocted band behind “Love Grows.” But they still called on studio ace Tony Burrows to provide the lead vocals on “My Baby Loves Lovin’.” Although, after 50 years, there is now some debate as to who actually sang lead; most accounts solely credit Mr. Burrows, while at least one member of the band says Burrows only sang on the chorus, while the band’s normal lead vocalist, Ricky Wolff, was the main singer. At this late date, who really knows?

Interestingly, when the band appeared on the BBC program Top of the Pops, it wasn’t Burrows or Wolff lip-synching “My Baby Loves Lovin’.” The fake lead singer for those promotional performances was the song’s co-writer, Roger Greenaway. What goes around, comes around, I suppose.

And here’s a pre-MTV promo video the band did for the song back in 1970. That’s not Tony or Roger singing, so it must be Ricky Wolff, the real band’s real lead singer, who may or may not have sung on the recording. (Probably not.) It gets confusing.

Whoever’s doing the singing, the song features the same chord progression in the verse, the chorus, and the bridge: I – iii – IV -ii – V. (In the key of G, that’s G – Bm – C – Am – D.) That kind of harmonic repetition, but with different melodies for each section, obviously worked.

As for Tony Burrows, he was the session voice behind a lot of British studio bands back in the day. You may recognize his voice on records by such fake bands as the Pipkins (“Gimme Dat Ding”), the Brotherhood of Man (“United We Stand”), and the First Class (“Beach Baby”). As a studio singer, he also sang backup for Elton John on his hits “Levon” and “Tiny Dancer.” He’s still alive today, aged 81.