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Posted (edited)

BTW - who thought up those lyrics? I grew up with the Herbie Mann live version with Ben Tucker guesting, which has no hint at these phrases. 

Edited by mikeweil
Posted
1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Come to find out it was a Top 40 hit for Torm.

TTK, does this push any buttons for you?

https://m.facebook.com/LennyGamble2/videos/mel-tormé-comin-home-baby-live-1962/363618991404593/

It makes me want to slap that mofo silly, even if he is dead now. 

Yes, I've seen that clip!  But I saw it in B&W. Cool to see it in color!  

I just never knew there was an Atlantic single version prior to the Columbia LP!  

Posted

A HIT single! And album!

58 minutes ago, mikeweil said:

BTW - who thought up those lyrics? I grew up with the Herbie Mann live version with Ben Tucker guesting, which has no hint at these phrases. 

Credited to Bob Dorough.

Posted

When Nesuhi Ertegun handed him the lead sheet weeks after Herbie Mann had recorded it, Torme wasn't happy about recording it.  Nesuhi pressed him, "It's great!  You could do a terrific vocal on this one.  We would like to do a single with you before we try an LP."

In his autobio 'It Wasn't All Velvet', Torme continues. 'It was a minor blues tune with trite repetitious lyrics and an 'answer' pattern sung by The Cookies, a girl trio.  Can this be happening?, I thought.  I mean, come on.  The Ertegun brothers?  World's greatest jazz fans?  What have I gotten myself into?"

'Comin' Home Baby' went to #36 on the Billboard November '62 pop chart.  Torme's recording was nominated for Best Rhythm & Blues Performance at the 1963 Grammy's.

Posted (edited)

Mel Torme was a fascinating composer and talented author, while the recorded output of his later years was at a consistently high level for both Concord Jazz and Telarc Jazz. But his people skills were lacking as he alienated a lot of people. I tried to get a phone interview with him in the early 1990s and was told that he only granted interviews to those based in cities where he was performing. When he finally was booked to do a pops concert in Chattanooga, my calls were never returned by his management.

Eventually Conocrd Jazz contacted me about writing liner notes for a CD taken from a 1982 concert he played with George Shearing and Gerry Mulligan, both of whom I had enjoyed interviewing, which I had recorded from a Jazz Alive! NPR broadcast in the fall of 1982. It would have been nice to have been able to talk to the singer, too. Maybe he had one too many dumb interviewers where they asked about his multiple marriages or disparaged a part of his discography, who knows?

Edited by Ken Dryden
Typo fix
Posted (edited)
On 6/20/2023 at 12:31 AM, JSngry said:

Credited to Bob Dorough.

Intersting that Bob Dorough didn't record it himself before 1979 (according to Tom Lord, whatever that means). Lord lists all of Tormé's recordings of the piece.

I'd like to hear an early Dorough version. 

Edited by mikeweil
Posted

BIG Torme fan here, also generally appreciate Bob Dorough's writing, though never cared for 'Comin' Home Baby'. When I read Torme had been a child star everything about him suddenly made perfect sense.

Posted
6 hours ago, mikeweil said:

This, btw, seems to be the first recording of the tune, with Ben Tucker playing on it:

MS00NzY2LmpwZWc.jpeg

The grrove is totally different!

A perennial best album cover and title ever.

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