"Society's Child" (originally titled "Baby I've Been Thinking") is a song about an interracial relationship written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Janis Ian in 1965.

Released as "Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)", the single charted high in many cities in the autumn of 1966 but did not hit big nationally until the summer of 1967.

In her autobiography, Ian made this comment about the concluding line: "I didn’t want the breakup for their relationship to be just society’s fault.

I don't think I knew where I was going when I started it, but when I hit the second line, "face is clean and shining black as night", it was obvious where the song was going.

I don't think I made a conscious decision to have the girl cop out in the end, it just seemed like that would be the logical thing at my age, because how can you buck school and society and your parents, and make yourself an outcast forever?Songwriter and producer Shadow Morton signed Janis to a record contract and made the decision to issue "Society's Child" as her first release.

[10] Largely owing to Bernstein's efforts, Verve Records started promoting it in trade magazines and many radio stations picked it up.

[13] Recorded in 1965 and released in 1966, the single charted high in many cities in the autumn of 1966 but did not enter Billboard's Hot 100 until the spring of 1967 (the issue dated 27 May, shortly before the related 12 June Loving v. Virginia decision).