Who recorded it first
Cry Baby
Not a Janis Joplin original — a 1963 Garnet Mimms & the Enchanters single on United Artists
Janis Joplin’s reading of “Cry Baby” is so total that most people assume she made the record from nothing. She didn’t. The song was written by Bert Berns and Jerry Ragovoy and first recorded by Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters ↗, issued as a United Artists single on 5 August 1963 with Berns producing. Far from an obscure demo, the Mimms original topped the R&B chart and reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Joplin’s version was cut in 1970 and released on the posthumous album Pearl, seven years after the record it was covering.
The record
Who recorded it first
Released Issued as a 7-inch single on United Artists on 5 August 1963, credited to Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters, backed with “Don’t Change Your Heart.” Bert Berns produced.
Charted A major hit on release: No. 1 on the R&B chart and No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, with No. 5 placings reported in Canada and New Zealand.
Hear The 1963 Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters recording — the original, not the Joplin version. www.youtube.com · An auto-generated “Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group” upload on the “Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters - Topic” distributor channel, not a fan rip. The description carries a ℗ 1963 Capitol Records, LLC line and a 1963 release date, confirming the original master rather than a later re-recording. Runtime is 3:29, consistent with the 3:26–3:31 lengths MusicBrainz records for this master on reissues; the 1963 single entity’s listed 3:09 is a rounded, hand-entered value.The paper trail
The song’s own reference article is filed under the original artist, not the famous one: Cry Baby (Garnet Mimms song) ↗, which dates the United Artists single to 5 August 1963 and names Berns and Ragovoy as writers.
Both writers hid behind pen names on the label — Berns as “Bert Russell,” Ragovoy as “Norman Meade” — a habit Ragovoy ↗ also used on “Time Is on My Side.”
The Bert Berns estate’s own account ↗ places the record at the front of the soul revolution, calling it a gospelised production that stood apart from everything around it.
MusicBrainz carries the 1963 United States single as a distinct recording entity, credited to Garnet Mimms & the Enchanters ↗.
Wikipedia: Cry Baby (Garnet Mimms song) — original, cover versions and chart historyKnow more about the original — or think we’ve got it wrong? Add a source →
Fact-check
The record, corrected
This is a chronology error, not a credit dispute. Nobody claims Joplin wrote “Cry Baby” — the writers are on every label — but a great many listeners assume the record began with her.
Janis Joplin
Her Pearl version is so definitive that the song is filed under her name in most people’s memory.
Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters
Recorded and released first, on United Artists, 5 August 1963 — a No. 1 R&B and No. 4 pop hit in its own right.
Bert Berns and Jerry Ragovoy
Credited on both versions, though on the 1963 label as Bert Russell and Norman Meade.
Right song, right singer, wrong order: Joplin’s 1971 recording is a cover of a 1963 Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters hit.
Context
Why the cover swallowed the original
The interesting question is not how Joplin’s version got big — it is how a No. 1 R&B and No. 4 pop record disappeared behind it. Part of the answer is format. The Mimms original was a single, the currency of 1963, and singles are consumed and discarded; Joplin’s was a track on Pearl, an album that went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and stayed there for nine weeks and has been in print ever since. An album keeps reintroducing itself. A seven-inch does not.
The rest of the answer is death. Joplin died on 4 October 1970 and Pearl arrived on 11 January 1971 as the last word from an artist who had none left to give, which is a story radio and memory both find irresistible. Mimms, meanwhile, kept working, moved into gospel ministry in the 1980s, and never had a myth attached to him. The record survived; the credit migrated.
The chronology, step by step
- 1961 — Garnet Mimms forms the Enchanters in Philadelphia with Sam Bell, Charles Boyer and Zola Pearnell.
- 1963 — The group relocates to New York and begins working with Bert Berns and Jerry Ragovoy.
- 5 August 1963 — “Cry Baby” is issued as a United Artists single, produced by Berns, backed with “Don’t Change Your Heart.”
- 1963 — The single tops the R&B chart and reaches No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
- 1970 — Janis Joplin records the song with producer Paul A. Rothchild during the Pearl sessions at Sunset Sound in Hollywood.
- 4 October 1970 — Joplin dies, leaving the album unfinished.
- 11 January 1971 — Columbia releases Pearl; it reaches No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
- 23 April 1971 — “Cry Baby” is issued as a Columbia single backed with “Mercedes Benz” and reaches No. 42 on the Hot 100.
A hit single is a moment. A posthumous album is a monument.