Cry Baby Cry

"Cry Baby Cry" is a song by The Beatles, written by John Lennon, from their 1968 album The Beatles. The song is followed on the album by a brief segment, written by Paul McCartney, often referred to as "Can You Take Me Back?"

Composition

Demos of the song indicate that Lennon wrote the song in late 1967. The original lyrics were "Cry baby cry, make your mother buy." Lennon described to biographer Hunter Davies how he got the words from an advertisement.

Recording

George Martin plays a harmonium on this track (introduced after the first statement of "make your mother sigh"), the same one that had been played by Lennon on "We Can Work It Out" and by Martin on "The Word".

This was the song the Beatles were working on when engineer Geoff Emerick quit, though his departure was precipitated by Lennon and McCartney's obsessions over the recordings of "Revolution" and "Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da", respectively, and the overall tensions of the White Album sessions. Emerick would not work with the Beatles again until the session for The Ballad of John and Yoko nine months later.

Personnel

Per Ian MacDonald:

• John Lennon – lead vocal, acoustic guitar, piano, organ
• Paul McCartney – bass guitar
• George Harrison – lead guitar
• Ringo Starr – drums, tambourine
• George Martin – harmonium

Can You Take Me Back?

"Cry Baby Cry" is followed on The Beatles album...
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