"Cry Like a Baby" is a 1968 song written by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, and performed by The Box Tops.

The song reached No.2 in April 1968 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, a position it held for two weeks.

So he calls me one day and says, "Spooner, will you help me try to write a song for Alex (Chilton) and the Box Tops?"

[5]In contrast with "The Letter", which was played by the band, "Cry Like a Baby" used the Memphis Boys, American Sound Studio's house band, in the instrumental backing, which features session guitarist Reggie Young playing an electric sitar.

[5] Author Peter Lavezzoli cites this part as an example of the widespread influence of Indian classical music on rock and pop music in the late 1960s, in the wake of the Beatles' popularisation of the sitar in songs such as "Within You Without You", from their 1967 album Sgt.

[5] Chilton, who sang lead vocals on the song, was only 17 years old at the time of recording.

"You left the water running now," the last line sung by Chilton, is a reference to another composition co-written by Penn.

[7] Billboard described the single as an "easy beat rhythm item" that "is loaded with play and sales potential.