‘Baby’ Reason Enough to Buy Mimms’ Album

Is a CD retrospective album worth buying for a single selection?

If that track is Garnet Mimms’ “Cry Baby,” the answer may be yes. Robert Pruter, R&B; editor of Goldmine magazine, the record collectors’ bible, describes the 1963 hit as one of the seminal steps in the soul music revolution.

In the liner notes for EMI’s new “The Best of Garnet Mimms/Cry Baby,” he states his case:

“Prior to the release of the record . . ., there were soul records that appeared on the charts here and there--mainly easily-digestible songs by Sam Cooke and Chuck Jackson that (fit so well) into the mainstream pop of the day so that nothing seemed alien or new about them.”

Mimms’ record, he maintains, was different.

“The song was a gospelized production so full of the soul-saving, fire-and-brimstone escapades of the black sanctified church that it singularly stood apart.”

Mimms sang in various gospel groups as a teen-ager in Philadelphia before entering the Army in the ‘50s and forming a secular R&B; outfit.

His commercial breakthrough came in the early ‘60s when he was signed by record producer-songwriter Jerry Ragovoy and writer-producer Bert Berns.

As the 24 other selections on the album suggest, Mimms was heavily influenced vocally by the smoothness of Sam Cooke and the intensity of Jackie Wilson. But there was something inspired about his passionate vocal performance on “Cry Baby” that suggested his own vision.

Ragovoy was thrilled by the recording, though he apparently had a hard time getting it placed with a record label.

“I took it to a lot of companies and they all turned it down,” he says in the liner notes. “Typically, in the record industry, if it doesn’t sound like anything the record executives are familiar with they turn it down. ‘Cry Baby’ was a totally unusual record for the time.”

Eventually, United Artists Records took a chance--and they were quickly rewarded. “Cry Baby” went to No. 4 on the pop chart and No. 1 on the R&B; chart.

As it turned out, Mimms’ version of “Cry Baby” was ultimately upstaged, in the rock world at least, by Janis Joplin’s riveting 1970 recording of it. Similarly, Mimms’ role as a soul influence would be dwarfed by the emergence of, among others, Otis Redding in the ‘60s and Al Green in the ‘70s.

Still, “The Best of Garnet Mimms/Cry Baby” is an engaging collection--with far more to recommend it than “Cry Baby.”

Among the other highlights: “A Quiet Place,” a daydream along the lines of the Drifters’ “Up on the Roof,” and “Looking for You,” a 1965 track with a heavy trace of Motown bounce.