"Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" is a song composed by Carl Perkins adapted from a similar song by Rex Griffin (Decca, 1936) Perkins recorded the song in 1957 which was then covered by The Beatles as the last track on their UK Beatles for Sale album and the last track on the US album Beatles '65. It finishes with a false ending; the final phrase repeating itself after the song seems to have stopped.
Carl Perkins changed the music and added his own lyrics but retained the refrain and adapted two verses from the Rex Smith song. Perkins changed the theme of the song, however, from bravado and narcissism to rock and roll groupies and the frenzy and mania of rock and roll stardom. In the Smith version, the theme is about drinking moonshine whiskey and womanizing. In Perkins' alternate take, there is an additional verse not found in Smith's song. Perkins added two new verses, changed the theme of the song, and wrote entirely new music.
It was later covered by Johnny Cash and performed by Bruce Springsteen in concert in 1998 as a tribute to Carl Perkins.
The song is currently owned by the Perkins family and administered by former Beatle Paul McCartney's company, MPL Communications which still credits the song to Perkins.