One Talented Duck

Monkey Man - Baby Huey & The Babysitters
from 7" on Satellite (1965).

Mighty Mighty Children, Pt. 1 - Baby Huey & The Babysitters
from 7" on Curtom (196?).

Baby Huey & The Babysitters produced one of my alltime favorite albums (The Baby Huey Story). And sadly it was their only one together, as lead singer/sometime composer James "Baby Huey" Ramey died before it was even released of health complications brought on by his drug use and weight problem. An excellent reissue of that album is available on both CD and vinyl now.

Prior to the relatively legitimate success that recording and releasing their LP (produced by Curtis Mayfield), the band was a live hit in Chicago in the mid-60s. Some of their early work can come across as overly showy and silly (check the group photo above with Baby Huey holding stuffed animals and wearing a toddlers suit), but even their earliest tracks showed off their tight-knit sound, excellent use of brass, and Baby Huey's powerful and infectious vocals. "Monkey Man" is a great example of this as it is hard to characterize it as anything but a novelty record with the grunting sounds and silly subject matter. However, the big beat, surf rock style is spot on. It doesn't even begin to show the brilliance they will achieve later.

"Might Might Children" was featured in a different form on appeared on the album, but this Pt. 1 version stands alone better as a song than the album version that was meant to showcase the infectious and crowd-involving euphoria that their live show could be.

After Ramey's death the band played with Chaka Khan for a while, and many of the members have since gone on to other musical projects. However, I'm pretty sure none of them are involved with this group.