Baby I Love You

A-Side: Baby I Love You
B-Side: High Risk Insurance

Record label: Sire SIR 4031
Producer: Phil Spector

Released: 18/01/80

Due to the fact that I no longer read pop papers – (What a stunning indictment on jaded rock hacks) I know not how the Ramones latest fared under the hands of we critics. Suffice to say that this single, the old Spector / Barry / Greenwich chestnut, finds the boys plodding along and perhaps suggests that methedrine is in short supply.

A gem of a song of course and at the hands of your favourite cuties it’s a creamy little delight. Everyone in the office hated it, but then again I always liked dumb things. Incidentally, I know Phil Spector put his gun down long enough to produce this, along with the album, ‘End Of The Century’, but whatever happened to that guy Barry Greenwich? (Record Mirror, 19/01/80)

This joke I get. Inevitably, “Baby I Love You” is the new Ramones single, just in case Spector has to cover potential losses and hide out on the High Sierra. I’ve already had my ten pence worth on the album to all that remains to say is that Joey sounds pleasantly feminine and the band are nowhere in evidence; it’s kinda like a solo effort. Effortless fun, three seconds and you know all the words. (NME, 19/01/80)

Awful but probably a hit. This sluggish retread of the old Spector / Barry / Greenwich classic is handled with all the love and integrity of a Party Political broadcast and represents the lowest point yet in the Ramones’ rapidly deteriorating career. In fact it’s so bad the mice in my nice new maisonette hurled themselves in the traps rather than hear it through a second time. (Sounds, 19/01/80)