Hey Baby (песня No Doubt)

2001 single by No Doubt

"Hey Baby" is a song by American rock band No Doubt from their fifth studio album Rock Steady (2001). Written by band members Gwen Stefani, Tony Kanal and Tom Dumont, "Hey Baby" was released as the album's lead single in October 2001 by Interscope Records. "Hey Baby" is heavily influenced by the Jamaican dancehall music present at No Doubt's post show parties and tour bus lounges of their Return of Saturn tour. The song begins with instrumentals programmed with producer Philip Steir at Toast Studios in San Francisco. They experimented with ray gun like electronic effects and sounds that guitarist Tom Dumont compared to Star Wars music. Notably, the intro is reminiscent of the beginning of the song "Jungle Love" by the Steve Miller Band. The lyrics and melodies were recorded at a session at Dumont's home studio in Los Angeles weeks later. While the band was working on the album in Kingston, Jamaica, during March 2001, producers Sly and Robbie left the percussion and Gwen Stefani's original vocal. Like the song's dancehall style, the lyrics depict the band's post show parties from touring in support of their fourth studio album Return of Saturn (2000). The song details female groupies who attended the parties to hook up with the male band members. Stefani commented that "if you're talented and you're up there, girls want to make out with you." Bassist Tony Kanal described it as "a very PG version" of the licentiousness that took place while touring. The song also touches on Rock Steady overall theme of Stefani's impatience in her long distance relationship with then boyfriend Gavin Rossdale (whom she eventually married in 2002), as she sits "sipping on chamomile/watching boys and girls and their sex appeal".

"Hey Baby" is a dancehall song composed in the key of E minor. It is written in common time and moves at a moderate tempo of 90 beats per minute. The song focuses on programming and lacks prominent live instrumentation. As a result, the band needed four keyboard rigs to recreate the track's sound for live performances, including a Roland AX 1 and an E mu Proteus 2000. Stefani's vocal range spans over two octaves in the song, from D3 to E5. Each of the two verses is followed by the chorus, where overdubbing is used on Stefani's vocals to produce first inversion and normal form E minor chords. Bounty Killer then toasts the bridge, and after a brief section sung by Stefani, the song closes by repeating the chorus twice. Colleen Delaney of Stylus Magazine was unimpressed by the lyrics' double entendres and noted that the toast and "deep, booming production save this song from being thin" but that it remained "inane and unengaging". Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine found the song a return to the band's roots, and that it finds No Doubt "sunnier (and tighter) than ever" as a result. The song was listed at number thirty eight on the 2002 Pazz & Jop list, a survey of several hundred music critics conducted by Robert Christgau. The band's endeavor in dancehall music received mixed reviews. AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine viewed the toast as a mistake, and Blender Rupert Howe found the foray into dancehall misguided, leaving Bounty Killer sounding bored. Alex Needham wrote for NME that the song was a strong example of "white reggae" but that many listeners may not be able to tolerate the genre itself. For Entertainment Weekly, David Browne described the chorus as "big, bustling, and irresistible" and its hip hop influence as kicky. In the BBC review of The Singles 1992 2003, Ruth Mitchell wrote that the chorus was addictive and chiming and that the song had a "catchy dancehall groove".

"Hey Baby" was chosen as the lead single from Rock Steady to represent the band's more "upbeat and confident" attitude for the album. In its third week, the song became the band's highest charting single, eventually peaking at number five for two consecutive weeks, later broken when "Underneath It All" reached number three. It was successful in the mainstream music market, topping the Top 40 Mainstream and reaching the top ten on the Top 40 Tracks and Adult Top 40. The song had significant crossover success and reached number five on the Rhythmic Top 40 chart. The song had similar success in Europe, reaching number five on the Eurochart Hot 100 Singles. In the United Kingdom, "Hey Baby" debuted at number two on the UK Singles Chart. It reached the top 10 in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, and Norway, and the top 20 in Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland. There are intercut scenes of the band members on a red and black background, a black and white houndstooth background, and standing on top of the phrases "NO DOUBT", "ROCK STEADY", and "HEY BABY" in red and white. The video was filmed in three days in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. The scenes were designed to recreate the parties that the band attended while recording Rock Steady in Jamaica. Young's scene was based on an actual event, where he won US$200 on a dare to hang upside down and naked on the rings at a club in New York City. Dumont's scene, filmed at Casa Mexicana, is inspired by a similar scene from the 1981 Indiana Jones film Raiders of the Lost Ark. Bounty Killer's rival Beenie Man stated that "the video portray Bounty as a gay. That is a Jamaican artist, and that can't gwan in a dancehall, no way." Bounty Killer cancelled his performances with No Doubt because of the incident, stating that "they did not understand because they are from America and they accept gay people If Jamaica is upset, I ain't going to accept no success that my culture is not proud of." The video premiered on MTV on November 6, 2001, and debuted at number 10 on Total Request Live, peaking at number three, and topped VH1's Top 20 Countdown for three weeks. The video won the MTV Video Music Awards for Best Pop Video and Best Group Video in 2002. The video was nominated for Best International Group Video at the 2002 MuchMusic Video Awards but lost to Korn's "Here to Stay".

No Doubt performed the song live during a number of public appearances, beginning with an appearance at the 2002 Billboard Music Awards held on December 4, 2001. Their headline Rock Steady Tour in 2002 also used "Hey Baby" in its set list. The accompanying video release, Rock Steady Live, includes the live segment where the single was performed as well.

The song is used in the films New York Minute and A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story.

+Release dates and formats for "Hey Baby"RegionDateFormat(s)Label(s)Ref. (Reference)United StatesOctober 2001InterscopeAustraliaDecember 10, 2001CDNew ZealandJanuary 28, 2002United KingdomFebruary 4, 2002CD, cassette