1966 Songs: The Streets of Baltimore

Tweet

It’s fun to look back via music. To celebrate my birthday I’m celebrating the birthday of songs released 70 and 60 years ago. I was alive in 1966, but not 1956. Today’s song was controversial at the time, but what did a six-year-old kid know! Linda? NO! The Streets of Baltimore - Bobby Bare “My baby walks the streets of Baltimore.” That’s how this song ends. Do you think I had any idea of what a “streetwalker” was when I was that age? The only thing I find “controversial” about this song is that line about “the prettiest place on earth is Baltimore at night.” Tompall Glaser, the front man of Tompall and the Glaser Brothers (and yes, his name was spelled “Tompall,” even though his given name was Thomas Paul), was the member of that legendary country outfit “The Outlaws” (with Willie, Waylon, and Jessi Colter) that nobody remembers. I had a couple of singles of theirs. Anyway, he co-wrote this with the legendary Harlan Howard. It’s one of those sad country songs about a man who leaves his home to move to a strange new city (Baltimore, Maryland in this case) because that’s what his wife wants. Long (well, not that long) story short: she leaves him for the night life and he goes back home. Speaking of birthdays, Bobby Bare just turned 91 last week. This was one of his big hits in the mid-60s. Most people know this these days from the Gram Parsons cover, but Bobby Bare did it first. The Streets of Baltimore Written by Tompall Glaser and Harlan Howard Recorded by Bobby Bare From The Streets of Baltimore, 1966 She loved those bright lights much more: