Runaway Baby

"Runaway Baby" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bruno Mars from his debut studio album Doo-Wops & Hooligans (2010).

The singer performed "Runaway Baby" at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards, at the Super Bowl XLVIII halftime show and on all his concerts since 2010.

[10] Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone found the song to have "an electric riff as rapidly talk-sings" and to be inspired by James Brown.

The mixing of "Runaway Baby" was done at Larrabee Sound Studios, in North Hollywood by Manny Marroquin, with Christian Plata and Erik Madrid serving as assistants.

Luke Gibson from HipHopDX and Entertainment Weekly's Leah Greenblatt considered "Runaway Baby" one of the standouts in the album.

[15] Blues & Soul publication found "Runaway Baby" to be inspired in The Jacksons, and "60s rock groove" from Eric Clapton and Cream; dubbing it as "enjoyable even though it's completely vacuous!".

[4] On the other hand, Tim Sendra of AllMusic gave it a negative analysis, "is a pretty cheesy rocker, suffering from clichéd lyrics and production.

"[16] Alexis Petridis from The Guardian went on to analyze some verses and gave them a harsh review, "Mars compares his penis to a carrot", which could not only lead to speculation regarding its meaning, but also "it's an image that haunts the rest of the song."

[12] MusicOMH's Jamie Milton felt that the recording was one of the things wrong with the album as at its core "involves throwing everything into the fire", mainly due to its "bad-boy pop-punkrealms".

[27][28][29] On October 22, 2011, Mars and his band wore matching red velvet Dolce & Gabbana suits during the song's performance on the results show of The X Factor UK.

[17][30] Robbie Daw of Idolator called the live show "rowdy", while a writer for Rap-Up praised the performance, writing that it "rocked the house" due to his "James Brown funky moves" and singing into a megaphone.

[17][30] On February 12, 2012, Mars performed "Runaway Baby" during the 54th Annual Grammy Awards along with his band, wearing matching shining black-and-gold tuxedos.

[32] At the 2012 Met Gala, Mars performed "Runaway Baby", wearing Prada, with the James Brown breakdown, followed by a medley of covers, which included "Ni**as in Paris", "Roxanne" and "Rock the Boat".

[35] Mars performed a shortened version of the song as part of his Super Bowl XLVIII halftime show, with a reference to The Isley Brothers' "Shout" and the James Brown-inspired choreography.