“Society’s Child (Baby I’ve Been Thinking)” was a song written in 1965 by Janis Ian. It centered on the then-taboo subject of interracial romance. Ian was 13 years old when she was motivated to write the song and completed it when she was 14. The lyrics of the song center on the feelings of a young girl who witnesses the humiliation that her African American boyfriend receives from the girl’s mother and the taunts that she herself endures from classmates and teachers. It closes with her decision to end her relationship with the boyfriend because of her inability to deal with the social pressure. (More from Wikipedia)
When she was just 13, folksinger Janis Ian – perhaps the most relentlessly soul-baring folksinger ever – began writing a heartbreaking song about interracial dating that she called “I’ve Been Thinking”; it was ultimately released in 1965 under the name “Society’s Child”. Unable to bear the hatred of her parents and the taunts of her schoolmates, she eventually breaks under the pressure and calls off the romance herself at the end of the song. Though slow to gain airplay (not to mention record sales), the song eventually peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967 – the same year that the similarly themed film, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was released.
(March 2013)
* * *
Janis Ian is a singer-songwriter who was only 13 when she wrote and recorded her first single about an interracial romance (perhaps the first song about that topic ever), “Society’s Child (Baby, I’ve Been Thinking)”. The history of this song is bathed in controversy, and “Society’s Child” was released three different times between 1965 and 1967; ultimately, the song reached #14 on the charts in the summer of 1967 and eventually sold 600,000 copies. Years later, the President of Atlantic Records, Jerry Wexler publicly apologized to Janis Ian for refusing to release the single and returning the master recording to her; “Society’s Child” finally came out on Verve/Forecast Records.
Janis Ian’s biggest hit song “At Seventeen” (1975) and the accompanying album, Between the Lines both reached #1 on the Adult Contemporary Singles and Hot 100 Albums Billboard charts, respectively, with much less drama than had befallen “Society’s Child”.
(January 2014)
