My Babe’ was a No. 1 rhythm & blues hit for Chicago blues singer-harmonica player Little Walter in 1955 on Chess Records’ subsidiary Checker label. With Robert Jr. Lockwood’s memorable guitar riffs propelling the arrangement, songwriter-producer Willie Dixon took an old spiritual with the line ‘This train is bound for glory, this train,’ and reworked it as ‘My babe don’t stand no cheatin’, my babe.’ During the same period, Ray Charles had also brought gospel into the blues with ‘I Got a Woman,’ as part of the process that eventually led to what we know as soul music. Walter had recorded an early attempt at ‘My Babe’ in 1954, but the song only came to fruition when Walter went back into the studio with Dixon, Lockwood and drummer Fred Below on January 25, 1955.
