You're Having My Baby ~ Mac Davis

[whigsgeek]

I will be getting an additional $7 (total) from a coworker for listening to this golden nugget from 4:00-6:00 p.m. on Monday, November 26, immediately following my first 8 hours of Torturethon. Tune in here for the carnage. 

[whigsgeek]

Just edited the thread title to reflect that I will be listening to the Mac Davis version of this national treasure, not the Paul Anka version.

[MissKitty]

I'm so sorry.

[Dan]

I don't know this song. Make sure I do by the time you listen.

[whigsgeek]

I don't know this song. Make sure I do by the time you listen.

This clip is Paul Anka (who originally did the song), but you'll still get the point.


http://www.youtube.com/v/cWAxAuwYIkM&feature=related

[rva]

I didn't even know Mac Davis covered the song.  It's a pretty horrible song by Paul Anka, too.  Kind of weird in that here's two guys who were both actually much better songwriters than most people realize.

I always liked Mac Davis, though.  I remember when he did the Muppet Show and sang "Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me" sitting on a giant fish hook, with muppet fish swimming around him.  I thought that was funny and cool.  Of course I was also eight at the time.

[whigsgeek]

And we're off ...

Start Time: 5:10 p.m.
Number of Listens: 03

Mac Davis was born Scott Davis on January 21, 1942, which makes him a fellow Aquarian. He first gained attention as the songwriter for Elvis' hit "In the Ghetto." In the Ghettooooooo ...

"Having My Baby" was, of course, a Paul Anka original. As a little girl, I had a mad crush on Paul Anka -- which came to a screeching halt after hearing this song for the first time.

Didn't have to keep it
Wouldn't put you through it
Could have swept it from your life, but you wouldn't do it

Oy.

[whigsgeek]

Torturethon Time: 19 minutes
Number of Listens: 06

"Whoa, the seed inside ya
Baby, do you feel it growin'?
Are you happy you know it?
That you're havin' my baby"

Honest to God, if a man ever wrote this song for me, I'd yank the baby out of my womb and crack him over the head with it.

[whigsgeek]

Mac Fact!

Mac Davis also wrote Elvis' posthumous hit "A Little Less Conversation" and the Bobby Goldsboro hit "Watching Scotty Grow."

[whigsgeek]

Paul Anka scored a comeback hit with "Having My Baby" (a duet with Odia Coates) in 1974. He later went on to have a baby with his Swedish personal trainer, ending his marriage of almost 40 years.

Smooth.

[whigsgeek]

Torturethon Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
Number of Listens: 25

Who the heck is the woman singing with Mac? I can't find reference to her anywhere. In fact, I can't find reference to Mac Davis having done this song at all. But the file my coworker gave me is credited to Mac, and she said she had the 45 by Mac when she was a kid.

[whigsgeek]

Oh. My. God.

I've deleted the pro-life "prosthelitization" portions of this guy's comments -- not for political reasons, but because what really kills me is the rest of his comments, and I don't want to detract from the silliness by getting lost in the political stuff.

Single Serving: Review of Paul Anka’s (You’re) Havin’ My Baby*
by psychologist and expecting father, Dr. Bruce L. Thiessen, aka Dr. B.L.T.

    Havin' my baby
    What a lovely way of sayin'
    How much you love me
    Havin' my baby
    What a lovely way of sayin'
    What you're thinkin' of me
    I can see it, face is glowin'
    I can see in your eyes
    I'm happy you know it...

I better make this short.  My wife is due within the next couple of weeks to have our first baby, but all indicators seem to point to the possibility that our little baby girl, Kassidy Dawn Thiessen (for all of you talent scouts out there looking for the next big thing), may want to arrive at the Thiessen household a little early. 

They don’t call me The Rock Doc for nothing. When I feel something, I immediately search for a song to match my sentiments. The feeling could hit me at anytime, so I don’t always have immediate access to Google. If I’m driving in my car, or if I’m near a radio,  I’ll do my sentiment searching by surfing the radio waves. Sometimes I’ll go through a stack of CDs. But I don’t always have immediate access to a radio, or to CDs, for that matter. Sometimes I turn to my brain, which, (when it isn’t working on the title or idea of my next new song), is filled with thousands of familiar songs. Sometimes, the phenomenon I refer to as “song-sentiment searching,” can take a while. But when I discovered nearly 9 months ago that my wife, Roxie, was pregnant with our first baby, Paul Anka’s 70s classic, (You’re) Havin’ My Baby was immediately re-discovered, and ultimately “adopted” (pun intended) as the “one-song soundtrack.”  First of all, there are few songs written about having a baby. Second, a song about having a baby, written from a male’s perspective is even a rarer phenomenon. But if there were a thousand songs written about the anticipation of this life-altering event, all written from a man’s perspective, none would likely capture the sentiment, as I feel it, quite as aptly, quite as brilliantly, or quite as poignantly as this Paul Anka classic. 

    [snip]

    The need inside you
    I see it showin'
    Whoa, the seed inside ya
    Baby, do you feel it growin'
    Are you happy you know it
    That you're

Not only does the song seem to convey compassion and empathy for the woman who will ultimately bear his child, but the song is partially sung by a woman, (namely Odia Coates) whose voice convincingly conveys a passionate, heartfelt longing to have their child.  After Odia joins Paul in the chorus, she re-enters the song by herself in a grand fashion with these touching words:

    I'm a woman in love
    And I love what it's doin' to me
     
    Havin' my baby (sung by both Paul and Odia)

    I'm a woman in love
    And I love what it's doin' to me

(You’re) Havin’ My Baby celebrates life in a way that few songs do.  It transformed Paul Anka from a teeny-bop idol and one of American’s first true “American Idols” to a seasoned pro and an American hero among expecting fathers like myself.  Paul Anka’s voice has changed since his teen-age debut.  It has become richer, more haunting, and perhaps more melancholy.  But in this song, it conveys a deep passion and a celebratory-yet-sensitive sentiment.   When I first heard it, I was as young as Paul was when he wrote his very first song.  I liked it then.  I love it now.  I love it enough to re-make it, in my own “shrink-rap” fashion.  That’s just what I did.  Actually, giving birth to this cover tune came quite naturally.  I didn’t even require a C-section, it took me closer to 9-minutes than 9 months,  and I didn’t have to go through hours of painful contractions.  I can’t sell it until I get permission from Paul Anka, so Paul, wherever you are (most likely performing the song in Las Vegas), feel free to listen to and/or download this version for free, then get back to me and tell me what you think.  My wife will soon be havin’ (our) baby, and we want to thank you for providing the “one-song soundtrack” for what I’m sure will undoubtedly become our life-altering event. 

Dr. B.L.T.’s “shrink-rapped” Cover of Paul Anka’s (You’re) Havin’ My Baby:
http://www.drblt.com/music/Havingbaby.mp3

[whigsgeek]

Torturethon Time: 1 hour, 48 minutes
Number of Listens: 40

You, too, can own Paul Anka's house! Check out the Real Estalker!

[whigsgeek]

Torturethon Time: 1 hour, 55 minutes
Number of Listens: 43

Mac Fact!

Mac Davis starred in the films North Dallas Forty and the Sting II.

[Ella Minnow Pea]

Are you sure it's not Paul? He sang it with Odia Coates.