This song was begun in January of 1989. Other than the title, some of
the melody including the hook, the bridge which is almost intact from the original
and the sighs at the ends of the choruses this song barely resembles the original.
Sun had written the lyric and as kind of usual was composing the melody while
walking around town in between destinations. He had a chorus melody which stayed
the same as it is heard on "Inquire Within". With one exception.
The musical lines that answer the title used to have words. In various re-writes
over the ensuing months and years, all sorts of different ones. He says you’d
either roar with laughter or hurl if you heard them...as well as the many versions
of the verse lyrics. Sun will only allow the exposure of the original first
line of the song: “I’m in a state of euphoria...” Oh brother! We both laugh
at this now! Sun’s ‘Hokey Alert System’ was not fully developed at the time
which certainly explains the incredibly nauseating lyrics.
This was not the only fopah Sun made in the early stages of this song.
Sun had taken alot of song writing workshops
from the mid 80’s into the early 90’s...like 7 or 8 years (almost like
a college education). Though when he started this process and was writing by
himself, he had shifted over to working only with collaborators for a few years
(The Song Writing) when he began
wanting to write some things by himself. These songs were still being composed
with other artists in mind but sometimes the process was very personal. “My
Baby Makes Me Feel So Good” was one of these. One night walking to work at the
Pyramid Sun was trying to make the verse melody a little more interesting and
came up with something extraordinary. It sounded familiar but Sun couldn’t put
his finger on it.
When he got to the studio and sang the melody to Art Labriola (Those
Nick At Nite Jingles) who did the original basic track they both tried to
figure out what old girl group song it sounded like. Art was convinced that
it was “Bobby’s Girl” but Sun said it wasn’t. It seemed glaringly obvious but
he couldn’t figure it out. That problem was solved when he played it in that
week’s workshop. When the song ended the hands shot up. Even the workshop teacher
said something like “Okay, who knows what’s wrong with this song?” Joey Bartell
said “Whoever wrote “It’s My Party” would sue you for plagiarism!!!”.
Sun still liked the song enough to go back to the studio, change a few
chords and rewrite a bit of the melody. Sun thinks you can hear the
influence...if you’re in the know.
Somewhere around 1990 Sun got turned on to Sam Phillips’ album "The
Indescribable Wow" by a guy who worked in a used record and book store.
Really, Wow! (Still one of Sun’s favorite albums of all time). What a brilliant
songwriter Sam is. Having been in those workshops seemed to be limiting at times.
If someone had brought in a song with a chorus that just repeated the title
twice they’d’ve been told the chorus was too short or that the title needed
answer lines. Which is pretty much the case when writing songs for other artists.
Sun still hears this sort of by rote response from stale ears that seem to predominate
the music business. The fans don't mind two line choruses at all...especially
ones as beautiful and melodic as this one. That type of writing was only acceptable
by artists who wrote their own material...and barely at that.
Sun shelved the song. He hauled it out again in September of 1992 and
wrote a completely new first verse, new answer lines for the chorus and revamped
the second verse. The title and
bridge remained intact. The song was originally written for a girl to sing about
a boy. This version was rewritten two more times before it was tossed back into
Sun’s song graveyard. But oh, that title lyric and melody...ah, well...
When Sun next pulled the song out of the scrap heap he deemed the rewrite
lyrics as tragic as the original ones. It was spring of 1999, shortly after
Sun had gone into the studio to sketch out what would be the first songs written
expressly for some sort of pipe dream solo project (that turned into "Inquire
Within") that he pulled out this song as well as “Nowhere”, “Move On” and
two other (really beautiful) songs that didn’t make the final cut. These songs
seemed worth following through on.
A reassessment of all of the wretched incarnations of “My Baby Makes
Me Feel So Good” reeked of the need for a complete overhaul. If Sun was to do
the song himself it would best be served by changing it from third to second
person. First of all...Sun is more about the universal appeal of a song and
for him to sing it in third person would turn it into a gay song...or if he
changed the gender, it would be a lie (imagine, some people don't know that
Sun is gay). So the verses got completely rewritten in May of 1999 and inspired
by Sam Phillips, the answer lines in the chorus were dropped completely. Oh
but how to have the chorus work... He tried changing it to “Baby You Make Me
Feel So Good” but it just didn’t feel the same. (He eventually threw one of
those in at the end of the last chorus). This time it he just put it on the
back burner.
On December 12th, 1999, while his most cherished cat Monte (short for
Montclair), lay dieing on the floor at his feet he sat and quietly examined
the lyric one last time. “How to make the verses work in second person with
the chorus in third. Hmm...” a few tweaks & the line, “I couldn’t imagine
how it would feel to say”, the dillemma was solved and the last of the severe
hokum was gone. What was left was just plain delicious sweetness. He looked
down at Monte, typed a dedication to him, then got up to lay down a scratch
vocal on the original sketch track. Sun has no tracking equipment so he has
to come as close as possible to nailing vocals done at home in one pass. This
can take more than a dozen passes. Right before the third pass he looked down
at Monte then sang one of the best single pass vocals he’d ever sang. Monte
began going into death throes about 2 hours later and was gone later that evening.
For over 18 years Monte was the constant
and loyal “Baby” who made Sun “Feel So Good”. Sun fell apart while recounting
this story.
The next day, Sun put together the first draft of "Inquire Within".
“My Baby Makes Me Feel So Good” was on it.