We've been here before - a repetitive cycle of one trick tune with lashings of 'oohs', 'baby's and 'ooh baby's cooing in the background; yes,'Baby Love' reads as a primer for every Pop Idol type girl/boy band or latter day R&B combo to pilfer from. And pilfer they did and pilfer they still do - the ubiquity of the tricks on display here is such that 'Baby Love' gives off the whiff of ho hum before Diana Ross has barely opened her mouth so it's easy to forget how fresh and original this formula was when the can was first opened; it's hardly fair to blame 'Baby Love' that this brand of once fizzy pop has now gone flat.That's in its defence anyway. For the prosecution, we've been here before too in that it's apparent to anyone with ears that 'Baby Love' is simply the previous month's 'Where Did Our Love Go' given a quick stir on a high flame before being served up again. Both open with a footstamp beat that's leaked over by a sugary vocal from Ms Ross with off beat injections of those 'oohs' and 'baby's from Wells and Ballard behind her. Oh, and both are jollied along by an identical saxophone riff that kicks in at the halfway point.
Of the two, 'Where Did Our Love Go' is the better song - not just because it was first off the block but because it has more to say for itself. Both tracks bemoan a lost love, but 'Baby Love' simpers and submits where 'Where Did Our Love Go' questions and, having a voice I could always take or leave anyway, it drags the worst kind of syrup out of Ross' mouth to cloy any sharpness out of the tune, making it more of a struggle to properly enjoy as it chases it's own tail with ever diminishing returns. The first number one from Motown and the only one from The Supremes, 'Baby Love' is competent rather than dazzling; both the label and the artists that created this would go on to produce far, far better.
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