Jackson Browne’s Big Regret Over ‘Somebody’s Baby’
Jackson Browne admitted he regretted ignoring his label president’s advice about his 1982 song “Somebody’s Baby,” because the executive turned out to be right.
The song, co-written with guitarist Danny Kortchmar, appeared on the soundtrack to Cameron Crowe’s movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and became the highest-charting single of Browne's career to date. However, he didn’t have an easy time co-writing it, as he told Uncle Joe Benson on the Ultimate Classic Rock Nights radio show.
“Danny Kortchmar came in with this idea, just the guitar part and the chorus, and it took forever to write those words,” Browne said. “He’s got this simple chorus: 'And she’s got to be somebody’s baby.' After I had the first verse, it took me so long to find something else to say, because it was so simple. … I don’t write a lot of words, and in a way it’s a crutch. I gave that song to Cameron Crowe for his movie, and it became a hit.”
He disagreed with the label boss’s recommendation that he should add the track to his next album, which turned out to be 1983’s Lawyers in Love. “I said, ‘No.’ I wasn’t gonna,” Browne said, adding that his argument was that "it doesn’t have anything to do with the stuff I’m singing. ... But of course, he was right – I should have. That album would have been a lot better had I.”
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