Cry Baby Cry

"Cry Baby Cry" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles. It was written by John Lennon and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. The coda of the song is a short segment referred to as "Can You Take Me Back", written by Paul McCartney, which was actually an outtake from the "I Will" session. [Wikipedia]

Cry Baby Cry is a song by The Beatles, written by Lennon and led on vocal by John Lennon. Nursery-rhyme menace; 'Can you take me back' coda by Paul leads into Revolution 9. Within the catalogue, its minor thread connects it to Don't Bother Me, Things We Said Today, Baby's in Black. Cry Baby Cry presented Paul McCartney's exploration of nursery rhyme imagery and surrealist lyrical techniques, creating an unsettling narrative within a relatively conventional harmonic structure. The composition demonstrated McCartney's continued willingness to experiment with unconventional lyrical approaches. (Of the Lennon contributions 'The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill' is a Lennon fantasy about Kozinn 1995, p.183)

The session work falls within the band's The White Album (1968) period, recorded 15 Jul 1968 at EMI Studios + Trident Studios (Soho). George Martin (with Chris Thomas covering) produced; Ken Scott (early), Geoff Emerick walked off — replaced engineered. For session-by-session detail, see Mark Lewisohn's account on p.143 of The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (excerpt below). Recorded with appropriate microphone technique to capture the song's eerie emotional quality, the session utilized Abbey Road's recording capabilities to achieve the desired atmospheric effect. The arrangement prioritized vocal clarity and piano accompaniment. (Cook, Tony copyright issues Così fan tutte Costello, Elvis count-in at start of a song Emerick 2006, p.957) (The Beatles” Records 239 Tiananmen Square, the ignominious collapse of Soviet communism, began “Cry baby MacDonald 1994, p.127)

In the canonical discography it appears on the LP The Beatles (White Album). Documented alternate versions include Mono Masters (2009 box), White Album 50th Anniversary (2018). Mono and stereo histories vary by era — see the dedicated section below. Paul McCartney lead vocals appear in 65 canon songs (13 in White era). The track exemplified McCartney's experimental lyrical approach.

• Ramsey Lewis recorded an instrumental version of this song on his 1968 album Mother Nature's Son.
• Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen covered this song on the 1987 album Flying Dreams.
• Samiam recorded a cover of the song, omitting the McCartney coda, for their 1997 album You Are Freaking Me Out.

Cover-version mentions extracted from the Wikipedia article. For comprehensive cover catalogs see SecondHandSongs.

• Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of its release, Jacob Stolworthy of The Independent listed "Cry Baby Cry" at number 19 in his ranking of the White Album's 30 tracks.
• He wrote of the song: "Lennon translated elements of the nursery rhyme 'Sing a Song of Sixpence' for this effort, which comes with an added eerie McCartney segment titled "Can You Take Me Back?" He said that the song is "unremarkable, but remains easy listening". A version of the song was included on the Extracted from the ‘In popular culture’ / ‘Legacy’ section of the corresponding Wikipedia article. Verify against the linked article before quoting.