Songfacts®:

• The Ronettes released the original version of "Baby, I Love You," taking it to #24 in the US in 1964. Five years later, Andy Kim had a bigger hit with his cover, which climbed to #9 and was a #1 hit in his native Canada.
  
  The song was written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector. Barry and Kim often worked together, and one day Kim was in Barry's office, where he discovered the sheet music. The song wasn't big in Canada, so Kim had never heard it before. He started playing it on his guitar, and when Barry heard him, they decided to record it with Barry producing. It was used as the lead single and title track to Kim's 1969 album, which also includes covers of "This Guy's In Love With You" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix."
• Kim was ready to quit the music industry when he recorded "Baby, I Love You." He hadn't experienced any chart success since "How'd We Ever Get This Way," which was on his debut album (also titled How'd We Ever Get This Way), released in 1968. Then, while recording "Baby, I Love You," producer Jeff Barry (who cowrote The Archies' #1 "Sugar, Sugar" with Kim) got so frustrated that he shut the session down and let the band go. He instructed Kim to go to the "big room" of A&R Recording studios and to rent five guitars. Kim sat on a stool in the center of the enormous room and focused on playing guitar while Barry clapped the tempo in the studio. After Kim laid down recordings on the five guitars, and Barry patched those together for the sound we hear in the final recording.
• Kim explained that the loud, jarring sound you hear in the beginning of the song was his finger hitting the guitar's sound hole.
• Kim released "Baby, I Love You" on May 24, 1969 - the same day The Archies' "Sugar, Sugar" went live. The songs were both milestones in Kim's career. In 1974, he released his biggest hit, "Rock Me Gently."