Charles Warfield and Clarence Williams, words and music · Recorded by Eva Taylor in 1922 · First hit by Bessie Smith, 1923
Baby, Won't You Please Come Home
Baby, Won't You Please Come Home is a 1919 blues by Charles Warfield and Clarence Williams. Eva Taylor recorded it in 1922, and Bessie Smith's 1923 record was its first hit. Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Red Garland and Miles Davis all recorded it.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Eva Taylor's 1922 record and Bessie Smith's 1923 hit, then moves to Louis Armstrong's 1939 orchestra and Wild Bill Davison's 1943 band. It continues with Billie Holiday's 1959 orchestra and Sarah Vaughan's guitar-and-bass record from 1962, and ends with Red Garland's 1962 trio and Miles Davis's 1963 quartet.
1940sWild Bill Davison and His Commodores1943 · Early jazz
1950sBillie Holiday with Ray Ellis1959
1960sSarah Vaughan1962 · Vocal
Red Garland Trio1962 · Hard bop
Miles Davis Quintet1963 · Hard bop
Progress can't be saved in this browser.
Step 1 of 8 Now playing✓ Heard
Meet the song at its start
Eva Taylor · 1922
“Baby Won't You Please Come Home”, OKeh 4740
Eva Taylor recorded the song for OKeh in New York on November 25, 1922, with her husband Clarence Williams, who shares the writing credit, on piano. Williams published the sheet music in 1923 with her picture on the cover.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Only a singer and a piano play, so every word is easy to follow. Listen to how the two of them move together.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four slowly: G and together in bar 1, then , then for two bars. Smaller version: play just G, E7 and A7, one per bar.
Bessie Smith recorded the song for Columbia in New York on April 11, 1923, with Clarence Williams at the piano. It was the song's first hit, staying on the charts for four weeks and peaking at number 6.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Smith's voice carries the whole record while the piano stays underneath. Compare her delivery with Eva Taylor's from a few months earlier: same song, same pianist, different singer.
Try it on your instrument
Play 5 to 8 slowly, one per bar: , , , . These four bars lead the ear back toward G. Smaller version: play only Em, A7 and D7.
Louis Armstrong and his orchestra recorded the song for Decca in New York on June 15, 1939. It came out as Decca 2729.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
A full orchestra backs Armstrong, so the sound is much bigger than on the two earlier records, which had only a singer and one accompanist.
Try it on your instrument
Play 9 to 12 slowly: G and together, then , , B7. The C7 in bar 11 is the that pulls away from G. Smaller version: play G, then E7, then C7, a bar each.
Wild Bill Davison and His Commodores · 1943 · Early jazz
“Baby Won't You Please Come Home”, The Commodore Master Takes
Wild Bill Davison led a Commodore session in New York on November 30, 1943, with Eddie Condon on guitar and George Brunies on trombone. The track was later collected on The Commodore Master Takes.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Seven players share the tune, with cornet, trombone and clarinet in front and piano, guitar, bass and drums keeping time behind. Follow one horn at a time.
Try it on your instrument
Play the full 16 at a bouncy pace, only, two beats on each chord. Smaller version: play just the first eight bars and stop on .
Billie Holiday with Ray Ellis and His Orchestra · 1959
Billie Holiday with Ray Ellis and His Orchestra
Billie Holiday recorded the song in New York on March 11, 1959, in a session arranged and conducted by Ray Ellis. The band included Harry Edison and Joe Wilder on trumpet, Al Cohn on tenor saxophone and Hank Jones on piano.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Trumpets, trombone, saxophones and a surround her voice. Compare this polished studio band with the single piano that backed Bessie Smith 36 years earlier.
Try it on your instrument
Play 13 to 16 slowly: C and , G and , and , then and D7. These four bars lead back to the top of the tune. Smaller version: play C, G, A7, D7, one per bar.
Sarah Vaughan sang the song on Sarah + 2, recorded for Roulette on August 7 and 8, 1962. It was her second album with only a guitar and a double bass behind her.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Only a guitar and a bass accompany her, so there is plenty of space around the voice. Listen for how the guitar and bass share that space with her.
Try it on your instrument
Play 1 to 8 with bass notes only, the root of each , then play them again with full chords on top. Smaller version: do the first four bars, G, , , A7.
“Baby Won't You Please Come Home”, When There Are Grey Skies
Red Garland's trio recorded the song at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on October 9, 1962. Prestige issued it on the album When There Are Grey Skies in 1963 and as a single.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Piano, bass and drums play together, with Garland's piano in front. Follow the bass and drums as they keep time under him, then switch back to the piano.
Try it on your instrument
Play all 16 in a steady swing rhythm, with bass notes in the left hand and in the right. Smaller version: loop bars 1 to 8, which end on and lead back to G.
“Baby Won't You Please Come Home”, Seven Steps to Heaven
Miles Davis recorded the song in Los Angeles on April 16, 1963, with Victor Feldman on piano, Ron Carter on bass and Frank Butler on drums. The saxophonist George Coleman is listed on another tune from the day, so this track is a quartet.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
At 8:25 it is the longest record on the path, played by trumpet, piano, bass and drums. Follow the trumpet first, then listen again to the piano, bass and drums behind it.
Try it on your instrument
Play the pattern in G over a slow swing, either with a backing track or a friend on bass. Smaller version: loop bars 1 to 4 and play only the melody notes you know.
Charles Warfield and Clarence Williams are credited with writing the song in 1919. Warfield later said he wrote it, and Williams did not publish the sheet music until 1923.
1920s
Eva Taylor records it in New York in November 1922, with her husband Clarence Williams on piano. Bessie Smith records it in April 1923, and her record stays on the charts for four weeks, peaking at number 6.
1930s
Django Reinhardt plays guitar in Bill Coleman's Paris band in November 1937. Louis Armstrong and his orchestra record it for Decca in New York in June 1939.
1940s
Wild Bill Davison leads a Commodore session in New York in November 1943, with Eddie Condon on guitar and George Brunies on trombone.
1950s
Frank Sinatra sings it on Where Are You?, with Gordon Jenkins conducting, in 1957. Billie Holiday records it in March 1959 with an orchestra arranged by Ray Ellis.
1960s
Sarah Vaughan sings it with only guitar and bass in August 1962, and Red Garland's trio plays it that October. Miles Davis's quartet takes it to 8:25 in April 1963.
1970s
Teresa Brewer sings it with Count Basie and Thad Jones on The Songs of Bessie Smith, a 1973 Flying Dutchman album.
2010s
Leon Redbone sings it with Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks on Boardwalk Empire, Volume 2, a soundtrack album released in 2013.
More great versions
6 more, from 1937 to 2013. Tap a cover to play it here.
1930sBill Coleman1937
1940s
1950sFrank Sinatra1957 · Vocal
1960sElla Fitzgerald1961 · Vocal
Dinah Washington1962 · Vocal
1970sTeresa Brewer, Count Basie and Thad Jones1973 · Big band
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010sLeon Redbone with Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks2013
Bill Coleman and His Orchestra
1937
“Baby Won't You Please Come Home”, Swing
American trumpeter Bill Coleman led a band in Paris on November 19, 1937, with Django Reinhardt on guitar and Emil Stern on piano.
“Baby, Won't You Please Come Home (Live At The Crescendo, 1961)”, Ella in Hollywood
Ella Fitzgerald sang the song live at the Crescendo in Hollywood in May 1961, backed by a quartet led by Lou Levy. Verve released the concert as Ella in Hollywood that year.
Leon Redbone with Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks
2013
“Baby Won't You Please Come Home”, Boardwalk Empire, Volume 2: Music From the HBO Original Series
Leon Redbone sang the song with Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks on Boardwalk Empire, Volume 2, a soundtrack album from the HBO series released in 2013.
The tune's layout, its keys and the chord chart, for anyone who wants to play along.
Show the form and chords
How the tune works
G majorusual key
16 barsA · A form
G majorkey centers
207–212 bpmhow fast players take it, across 3 transcribed solos (Weimar Jazz Database)
A8 bars
A8 bars
G
The tune stays in for all 16 . Bars 1 to 8 run G , , , A7, B7, , A7, , where two in one bar are written side by side. Bars 9 to 16 start the same way with G B7 and E7, then go to , B7, C , G E7, A7 D7 and D7, which leads back to the top. The iReal Pro chart repeats the 16 bars and closes with a three-bar ending of G B7 E7, A7 D7 and G6. These follow iReal Pro's chart; other lead sheets may spell some chords differently.