"Little Baby Nothing" is a song recorded by Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers for their debut studio album, Generation Terrorists (1992). It was released on 9 November 1992 by Columbia Records as the sixth and final single from the album. The song features guest vocals by American actress and singer Traci Lords.

Content

"Little Baby Nothing" features vocals by former pornographic actress Traci Lords. The song is about the sexual exploitation of a woman, and Lords agreed to a duet with the band's singer-lead guitarist James Dean Bradfield. Bradfield said: "we needed somebody, a symbol, a person that could actually symbolize the lyrics and justify them to a certain degree. Traci was more than happy to do it. She saw the lyrics, and she had an immediate affinity with them. It was definitely easy to incorporate her personality into the lyrics. We just wanted a symbol for it, and I think she was a great symbol. She sounds like a female Joey Ramone to me." Lords said that "I listened to the tape and really identified with the character in the song... this young girl who's been exploited and abused by men all her life." In an interview some years later, she said that she was distressed at the news of the disappearance and presumed suicide of the band's guitarist-lyricist Richey Edwards.

Originally, the band wanted the duet to feature vocals by Australian singer Kylie Minogue, but she could not be released from her PWL contracts. The inclusion of the song on CD also upset Glen Powell's plans to reissue the single. Powell had produced the original version and still owned the master tapes.

Track listings

All music was composed by James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore. All lyrics were written by Nicky Wire and Richey Edwards.

CD1

  • CD1 was rereleased in 1997 with an altered running order.

CD2

7-inch

Cassette

Charts

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|-

! scope="col"| Chart (1992)

! scope="col"| Peak<br/>position

|-

|-

!scope="row"|UK Airplay (Music Week)

| 29

|}

References

Sources

  • Director Steven Wells on the story behind the video for "Little Baby Nothing"