My Baby Left Me
Background
"My Baby Left Me" is an album track on Cosmo's Factory, the fifth long-player of Creedence Clearwater Revival. The number was originally written and recorded by Arthur Crudup in 1950. Elvis Presley cut the song in 1956. John Fogerty heard the Presley's version on a jukebox in some little market near the summer place of the Fogerty family in Winters, California. "This record may be the reason that I play guitar," commented Fogerty in 2012.
Live versions
Creedence Clearwater never performed "My Baby Left Me" live.
The audience had to wait until the year 1994 to hear the song live. John Fogerty performed it at House of Blues in Los Angeles on September 21st, 1994.
He delivered the Arthur Crudup original again on the first Cosmo's Factory album concert at Beacon Theatre in New York on November 17th, 2011. Fogerty also played the song on the subsequent Cosmo's Factory concerts in Australia in 2012, Canada 2012 and North America fall 2013.
The Beacon Theatre concert in 2011 was broadcast live by Sirius XM satellite radio. Sound files of the John Fogerty concerts have been officially made available since fall 2013.
Critical reception
"It is interesting to note that John does a far better job of Elvis's song than Presley did of the Fogerty hit [Proud Mary]." -Roy Carr, New Musical Express, July 25th, 1970.
"On "My Baby Left Me" the early-Elvis echo-chamber effect and the old Scotty Moore riffs on lead guitar reveal a considerable amount of careful study of the original." -John Grissim, The Rolling Stone, September 3rd, 1970.
Written by Arthur Crudup.
Recorded at Studio C, Wally Heider Studios, San Francisco, CA, USA, in June 1970.
Appears on Cosmo's Factory album.
Released on July 25th, 1970.