Maybe Your Baby's Got The Blues

Album: Heartland (1987)
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Songfacts®:

  • A few years after he co-wrote Tina Turner's smash 1984 hit "What's Love Got To Do With It," Graham Lyle traveled to Nashville to write with Troy Seals, who spent the first half of the decade writing hits for Charley Pride, Conway Twitty, Eric Clapton, and Willie Nelson.

    When The Judds' producer, Brent Maher, got wind of the meeting, he inquired, via Seals' publisher, if they'd try to write something for the country duo. The result was a melancholy ballad that finds Wynonna giving advice to men with unhappy ladies.
  • Seals recalled how the song came together in The Billboard Book Of #1 Country Hits. "We were just writin' and got in on that song and it felt real good," he said. "Graham loves country, and he comes to write country - he truly does. We were workin' on 'Maybe Your Baby's Got The Blues' and Brent Maher came by the door and heard it, and said, 'What's that?'"

    At Maher's urging, the pair finished the song that same day so they could play it for The Judds. What happened next wasn't typical for Naomi and Wynonna, who usually demoed an entire album, weeded out the songs that didn't work, and re-recorded the keepers with their band. Although some instruments were added later, The Judds' initial demo is the one we hear on the album.

    Maher explained, "At 6:00, [the songwriters] rolled in the studio, brought their guitars and sat down and played 'Maybe Your Baby's Got The Blues.' We just threw it on a little blaster, with Graham and Troy singin' it, and the girls liked it. That evening, we did a demo on it, and it sounded so great that we decided to keep it."
  • The third single from Heartland, their third studio album, this was The Judds' 10th #1 hit on the Country chart.

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