If I Knew You Were Comin 'I'd've Baked a Cake

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If I Knew You Were Comin 'I'd've Baked a Cake
Eileen Barton
publication 1950
length 2:37
Genre (s)
Author (s)
Producer (s) Tom Dowd
Label National

If I Knew You Were Comin 'I'd've Baked a Cake is a song written by Al Hoffman , Bob Merrill and Clem Watts (pseudonym for Al Trace ) and published in 1950.

First recording of the song

The most famous version of the song was recorded by Eileen Barton in January 1950 . The recording was released by National Records under catalog number 9103. When the song's success became too big for National, the label arranged a distribution partnership with Mercury Records . The record hit the Billboard charts for the first time on March 3, 1950 , stayed on the charts for 15 weeks and peaked at number 1. The song was one of Tom Dowd's first hits as a producer.

In 1962, Barton's inclusion of the song was included in a list of 101 long-term singles hits by Billboard - a group "for year-round programming by jukebox operators and radio stations ... a catalog of standards that provide consistent revenue for operators and broadcasters a wealth of discussion" .

Cover versions

Another version was recorded by Georgia Gibbs . The recording was made on February 16, 1950 and was released by Coral Records under catalog number 60169. The record hit the Billboard charts on March 17, 1950, stayed there for six weeks, and peaked at number 21. Betty Harris , a choir, and Art Mooneys Orchestra also created a variant. The recording was made on February 15, 1950 and was released by MGM Records as catalog number 10660.

Bing Crosby and Bob Hope sang together a version in which the original text was expanded to include verses about the preparation of a seven-course meal and the preparation of a goose.

In Australia there was a release by June Hamilton in May 1950 , which appeared on Pacific Records with the catalog number 10-0030. Several cover versions were also produced in the field of jazz from 1950; Alice Babs recorded it twice in 1950 (accompanied by Kenneth Fagerlunds Orkester, among others with Bengt Hallberg , as well as with Carl-Henrik Norins Orkester) in 1950 in Stockholm (Cupol 438), in the USA Beulah Frazier in 1953 for Essex (# 705), in England Tommy Watt 1959 for Paramount (PMC 1107).

Eileen Barton recorded the song a second time for MGM in 1959. The new version reached number 117 in the Music Vendor survey.

Several versions of the song were recorded for the television series Sesame Street . The first was recorded in a 1969 sketch with Ernie and the Cookie Monster . Another version with the Cookie Monster and Graf Zahl was recorded in 1976 and published on the B-side of the record C is for Cookie . In the German version of Sesame Street , the song Had I expected you today, if I had cake there was sung by Gerd Duwner , Ernie's German dubbing voice, which is one bar late. While the German text by Joachim Tode, Volker Ludwig and Gerhard Vogel is based relatively precisely on the English original text, the melody was completely re-composed by Ingfried Hoffmann .

The song appeared in the episode Oh Henry, come back (Original Date aired 19 November 1972) the first season of M * A * S * H . Two geisha girls from Tokyo performed the song with acoustic guitar accompaniment for Hawkeye Pierce, Henry Blake and trapper John McIntyre.

The song appeared in the 1978 adaptation of Next Year, same time . As Doris prepares to shower, George tells her that the song that was playing while they were making love was If I Knew You Were Comin 'I'd've Baked a Cake , and that it will be her song. In a later scene in the film, George plays part of the song on the piano.

Baker Bob sang this song before Piella Bakewell murdered him at the beginning of the Wallace & Gromit cartoon Wallace & Gromit (2008).

Versions in other languages

In 1950, Rita Paul, accompanied by the RIAS Dance Orchestra under Werner Müller, recorded the song with the German text Bobby, bake a cake by Hans Bradtke . A quote from the nursery rhyme Backe, bake Kuchen is incorporated into the arrangement of the recording . Further recordings of Bradtke's text, also with the varied title Ach, Babette, bake cake originate u. a. from the East Berlin Cornel-Quintett, the 3 Travelers and Evelyn Künneke .

Siw Malmkvist sang the song in 1962 on the completely different text from the original När det blåser på månen ("When the wind blows on the moon") by Gösta Rybrant. The Danish version Jeg havde bagt en kage (text: Peter Spar) sung by Ulla Pia in 1967 is closer to the original.

Chart placements

Chart (1950) Top position
US Best-Selling Pop Singles ( Billboard ) 1
predecessor placement successor
Music! Music! Music! by Teresa Brewer US Billboard Hot 100 number one hit
15-22 April 1950 		The Third Man Theme by Anton Karas

Individual evidence

  1. ^ National, Mercury To Divide Up “Cake” With Tune's Co-Release . In: Billboard . February 25, 1950, ISSN  0006-2510 , p. 15. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  2. ^ A b Joel Whitburn : Top Pop Records 1940–1955 . Record Research, Menomonee Falls 1973.
  3. ^ Joel Selvin: Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues . Counterpoint, Berkeley, CA 2014, ISBN 978-1-61902-302-4 , p. 32.
  4. ↑ 101 Perennial Singles Hits . December 10, 1962, p. 47. Retrieved September 18, 2015.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) @1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.americanradiohistory.com
  5. ↑ WAMU -FM broadcast of National Public Radio show at 21 o'clock Eastern time on March 30 of 2008.
  6. ↑ Tom Lord : Jazz Discography.
  7. ↑ Sesame Street - If I Knew You Were Coming on YouTube
  8. ↑ Cookie Monster And The Count - If I Knew You Were Coming I'd've Baked A Cake on YouTube
  9. ↑ If I had expected you today at sesamstrasse.de, accessed on October 15, 2017.
  10. ↑ Ernie, Bert & Friends - If I had expected you today at hitparade.ch, accessed on October 15, 2017.
  11. ↑ ISWC : T-801.394.353-9, GEMA-Werk.-Nr .: 3595538-001, accessed via online.gema.de on October 15, 2017.
  12. ↑ Rita Paul - Bobby bakes a cake at hitparade.ch, accessed on October 15, 2017.
  13. ↑ a b c If I Knew You Were Comin 'I'd've Baked A Cake at coverinfo.de, accessed on October 15, 2017.
  14. ↑ Best-Selling Pop Singles . In: Billboard . April 15, 1955, ISSN  0006-2510 , p. 40. Retrieved October 10, 2015.