Baby, Won't You Please Come Home?

By Clarence Williams & Charles Warfield
1919

It's believed that pianist Warfield was in actuality this song's sole composer, and Williams--as song publishers sometimes did--took partial credit in exchange for promoting the song. Although written in 1919, the earliest recorded version, to my knowledge, is the 1922 version by Williams' wife Eva Taylor. Bessie Smith, "Empress of the Blues", would make a hit of it the following year. It has since become a signature tune of the Roaring '20s.

Lyrics:

I've got the blues, I feel so lonely.
I'll give the world if I could only
Make you understand
It surely would be grand.
I'm gonna telephone my baby,
Ask him won't you please come home,
'Cause when you're gone, I'm worried all day long.

Baby, won't you please come home?
Baby, won't you please come home?
I have tried in vain
Nevermore to call your name.

When you left you broke my heart,
That will never make us part.
Every hour in the day,
You will hear me say,
Baby won't you please come home.

Recorded By:

The Mills Brothers
Wynton Marsalis
Stan Kenton
Frank Sinatra
Ray Charles