Marvin Gaye’s classic soul song, “Baby Don’t You Do It”, created a blueprint for future rock legends like The Band and The Who. And just as rock music doesn’t feel as good without its roll, the rhythm and blues of Gaye’s 1964 hit, and many other American soul songs, reverberated across the Atlantic. From the British Invasion groups to Bob Dylan’s former backing band in upstate New York.
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About “Baby Don’t You Do It”
Written by Motown’s legendary writing and production team, Lamont Dozier, and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland, “Baby Don’t You Do It” finds Marvin Gaye pleading with his partner to stay.
Girl, I’ve sacrificed to make you happy,
Get nothing for myself.
Now you wanna leave me,
For the love of someone else.
The track also features Motown session singers The Andantes. The girl group that famously backed The Temptations, Four Tops, The Supremes, Martha And The Vandellas, and others.
Meanwhile, Holland, Dozier, and Holland had written the song for The Supremes. It shares a similar sentiment to one of the group’s biggest hits, “Where Did Our Love Go”.
But Gaye’s single includes an interesting B-side, “Walk On The Wild Side”. He recorded it along with standards and other Broadway tunes for his album Hello Broadway. The two songs feature very different sides of Gaye—the soul singer and the crooner.
My heart was made of glass, and you surely see,
Heartaches and misery you’ve been causing me.
Yet I tried to do my best,
Girl, I tried to do my best.
The Band
The Band’s cover version, titled “Don’t Do It”, features drummer Levon Helm on lead vocals, with bassist Rick Danko and pianist Richard Manuel on backing vocals.
In 1972, The Band released a live version, taken from their Rock Of Ages album, recorded over four nights at the Academy of Music in New York City. They also performed “Don’t Do It” as an encore in Martin Scorsese’s 1976 concert film The Last Waltz.
The Who
Like many English bands of the 1960s, The Who drew on American blues and soul music as a foundation for their sound. They often covered “Baby Don’t You Do It” in the mid-60s, and a studio version was included on a remastered version of the band’s outtakes collection, Odds & Sods.
For his part, singer Roger Daltrey echoes the pain in Gaye’s original. Without the heartache, there’d be only rhythm and no blues.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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