Song:Cry Baby
Album:The Best Of Garnet Mimms: Cry Baby
Last week I was talking about Erma Franklin's original version of Piece Of My Heart. Today I'm going to talk about another song most folks identify with Janis Joplin. And the interesting thing is the source of the song is the same. Cry Baby was a top five hit for Garnet Mimms in 1963. He was born Garrett Mimms Nov. 16, 1933 in Ashland, VA and grew up in Philadelphia. He grew up singing in church and sang with several gospel groups until he went into the military in 1953. When he was discharged in 1958, he formed the doo wop group The Gainors with Howard Tate. They split up in 1961 and Mimms and Sam Bell started Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters with Charles Boyer and Zola Pearnell. Mimms moved to New York and was signed to United Artists Records by Bert Berns. And Berns and partner Jerry Ragavoy wrote Cry Baby. Aren't those the same guys who wrote Piece Of My Heart? Exactly. Cry Baby topped the R & B charts and reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Of course Janis Joplin recorded Cry Baby for her 1970 album Pearl and and most folks should be familiar with that version. Mimms continued to have success on the R & B charts through 1966. When things petered out, he followed Ragavoy to Verve and then later in the 70s, he recorded some disco funk for Arista. You can get all of Mimms' UA hits on this 1993 comp from Capitol. Garnet Mimms quit the music business for the ministry. But he returned to recording with the 2008 gospel CD Is There Anybody Out There on Evidence Records. Here's a video for Cry Baby by Garnet Mimms.
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