Styx - Babe

Nothing terribly witty to say about the song, except that at the end of the chorus, it borrowed a keyboard line from Paul Davis's "I Go Crazy", which in turn borrowed the same keyboard line from The Looking Glass' "Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne".

LP version (runs 4:24)

I think the LP version first appeared on A&M's Classics Vol. 15 (1987), where it runs 4:24. It sounds great here, with plenty of dynamic range, nice EQ, and no traces of noise reduction on the fade. However, the left and right channels are swapped.

I also have the LP version on A&M's Greatest Hits (1995), where it also runs 4:24. It has a nice EQ, no traces of noise reduction, proper left/right channels, but clips a bit in the loud portions. The sound quality is surprisingly close to Classics, if you were to raise the volume on Classics by 6 dB and swap the left/right channels. I suspect that it uses the same source tapes as Classics but a different analog transfer of them.

My preferred LP version is Classics Vol. 15, where I manually swap the left/right channels.

45 edit (runs 3:59)

The 45 removes the 24-second intro from the LP version, but is otherwise the same.

The 45 version first appeared on CD on Warner Special Products' 2-CD Love Songs (1988), where it runs 3:59. It sounds nice here, with plenty of dynamic range, nice EQ, and no trace of noise reduction on the fade. There are digital clone of Love Songs on:

• Time-Life's Guitar Rock Vol. 27 Power Ballads (1999; digitally exactly 0.53 dB louder)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Classic Soft Rock Vol. 3 Into The Night (2006; differently EQ'd digital clone)

The 45 version is also on swaitek's promo 50-CD set The A List Disc 1 (1994). It doesn't have any noise reduction artifacts on the fade, which is nice.

My preferred 45 edit is Love Songs.

Edited by crapfromthepast

Dang, I HATED this song when I was a kid back in '79! :-( I used to *cringe* every time I heard the intro come on over the radio, and that dreaded "Babe, I'm leavin'..." lyric - and of course, it got played to death! Back then, though, I didn't know who the artist was - I just knew it was time to change the station, lol. (Was in my very early teens, and probably owned all of two or three records at the time.) I don't think it was until about 1983 when I bought the Kilroy Was Here album I learned that "Babe" was by Styx - but by then, I'd become a fan, and definitely enjoyed quite a few of their other hits, my two faves being "Renegade" and "Too Much Time on My Hands". Over the ensuing years, my attitude toward "Babe" gradually changed to neutral, which is where it stands w/ me to this day. Of course, if you'd told me back in '79 that I'd eventually pay to see the group perform that very song in concert - as I did in '97, w/ the classic line-up still intact, minus drummer John Panozzo, who'd sadly passed away the year before - and then actually MEET and talk w/ the singer (Dennis DeYoung) at another show several years after that, I would've said you were crazy, lol...

crapfromthepast wrote: I think the LP version first appeared on A&M's Classics Vol. 15 (1987)...

ptgraphics wrote: For me, the best sounding LP version is probably on the original Japan for USA CD of Cornerstone. Pat

Yes, the LP version of "Babe" actually made its CD debut on that Japan-for-U.S. pressing of the song's original 1979 parent album, Cornerstone. The double-platinum album by the still-hot act was one of the earliest U.S. CD releases, circa 1984-85 (preceding Classics Vol. 15 by some 2-3 years). The original Japan-for-U.S. pressings are pretty tough to find today, though - just like those of another classic '79 album from A&M, Supertramp's Breakfast in America. I've picked up a couple copies of both while out on my record-store travels over the last 5-6 years, and ended up trading them to my brother to flip on eBay, since they're collectible among audiophiles...

This video claims to have a "unique" or "uniquely processed" mono folddown of the stereo mix radio from a reel tape.

I listened to it and while I've never tried folding down "Babe," I can't hear any mix differences. Did the swirley keyboards provide a unique challenge for mono stations?

The only thing I noticed was the inclusion of more of the keyboards at the beginning compared to the original edit.

Anybody able to educate me on what makes this special?