Comin’ Home Baby – 1963
Mel Tormé
A televised version of Tormé’s hit
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Mel Tormé, one of the greatest male jazz singers of all time, had a long career that included leading the Mel-Tones in the mid-1940s, recording classic albums with arranger Marty Paich in the mid-to-late 1950s, and his many memorable sessions for the Concord label in the 1980s and ‘90s.
Yet it is ironic that one of his most popular recordings, 1962’s “Comin’ Home Baby,” is a song that he disliked and very rarely performed in public after the mid-1960s.
Written as an instrumental by bassist George Tucker in 1961 (Herbie Mann soon recorded it), it was given lyrics by Bob Dorough before Tormé reluctantly recorded it in late 1962; the song reached #36 on the charts.
In 1963 on the Judy Garland Show, Mel Tormé performed this amusing version with five women, each of whom he tells that he is “comin’ home.”
-Scott Yanow
Stan Getz