(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone

Album: Aretha: Lady Soul (1968)
Charted: 47 5
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Aretha Franklin wrote this uptempo R&B classic with her then-husband and manager Ted White. In the song, the Queen of Soul is dealing with the aftermath of a fight that resulted in her lover walking out the door. In reality, she wasn't pleading for her husband to come back. After years of abuse, Franklin separated from White around the time Lady Soul was released, and the pair divorced the following year.
  • Like her other Altantic hits, this features the famed Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, who were flown in from Alabama to record at the label's studio in New York City.
  • Franklin's sisters Erma and Carolyn provided backing vocals, along with the Sweet Inspirations. Carolyn, who also wrote the single's hit B-side "Ain't No Way," told David Ritz for the biography Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin: "Aretha liked to call me the writer of the family, but just as she had the big talent as a singer, she had that same big talent as a composer. The difference is that she pursued the singing with all she had but slacked off on the writing."
  • This was Franklin's fifth #1 single on the R&B chart. In just one week, it sold over 450,000 copies.
  • Gary Puckett & The Union Gap covered this on their 1968 album, Young Girl.
  • This was used in the sitcom Murphy Brown in the 1989 episode "And So He Goes." It was also featured in the 1999 movie Bicentennial Man, starring Robin Williams.

Comments: 1

  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn this day in 1968 {June 27th} Ramsey Lewis was a guest on the nationally syndicated television program, 'The Mike Douglas Show'...
    Two months later on August 25th, 1968 his covered version of "Since You've Been Gone (Sweet, Sweet Baby)" entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #98, the following week it remained at position 98, and that was also it's second and final week on the Top 100...
    "Since You've Been Gone (Sweet, Sweet Baby)" was co-composed by Aretha Franklin, her version reached #5 {for 4 weeks} on the Hot Top 100 chart earlier in 1968 on March 24th...
    Between 1964 and 1976 Ramsey Lewis had fifteen records on the Hot Top 100 chart, one* made the Top 10, "The 'In' Crowd", it peaked at #5 {for 1 week} on October 3rd, 1965...
    Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis Jr. celebrated his 84th birthday last month on May 27th, 2019...
    May both Mike Douglas {1920 - 2006} and Aretha Franklin {1942 - 2018} R.I.P.
    * He just missed having a second Top 10 record when his covered version of "Hang On Sloopy" peaked at #11 {for 2 weeks} on December 5th, 1965...
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Subversive Songs Used To Sell

Subversive Songs Used To SellSong Writing

Songs about drugs, revolution and greed that have been used in commercials for sneakers, jeans, fast food, cruises and cars.

Rock Revenge Songs

Rock Revenge SongsMusic Quiz

John Lennon, Paul Simon and Lynyrd Skynyrd are some of the artists who have written revenge songs. Do you know who they wrote them about?

90s Metal

90s MetalFact or Fiction

Test your metal - Priest, Maiden, and Beavis and Butt-head show up in this one.

Into The Great Wide Open: Made-up Musicians

Into The Great Wide Open: Made-up MusiciansSong Writing

Eddie (played by Johnny Depp in the video) found fame fleeting, but Chuck Berry's made-up musician fared better.

Janis Ian

Janis IanSongwriter Interviews

One of the first successful female singer-songwriters, Janis had her first hit in 1967 at age 15.

Female Singers Of The 90s

Female Singers Of The 90sMusic Quiz

The ladies who ruled the '90s in this quiz.