Glenn JonesDaddy B. Nice's #84 ranked Southern Soul Artist |
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"Baby Come Home" Glenn Jones Composed by Glenn Jones and Raymond Watkins November 11, 2015: Re-Posted from Daddy B. Nice's Corner A GLENN JONES SIGHTING!One of contemporary southern soul's seminal recording artists,Glenn Jones, seldom records or performs any more. Although his signature southern soul song, "Baby Come Home," is ranked #84 on Daddy B. Nice's Top 100 Southern Soul Songs (1990-2010), Jones' classic could easily be considered one of the top ten ballads of the era. It's served as a template for singers looking for the full, robust, emotive sound of true southern soul and can be heard in countless contemporary ballads, including Jesse Robinson's #1 single (September '15), "Chasing The Wind."Glenn Jones will make a rare appearance at Rocky Mount, North Carolina's 2nd Annual Southern Soul Christmas Party on December 5, 2015. See Daddy B. Nice's Corner. Listen to Glenn Jones singing "Baby Come Home" on YouTube. See Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide to Glenn Jones. ************* ************* ************* To automatically link to Glenn Jones' charted radio singles, awards, CD's and other citations and references on the website, go to "Jones, Glenn" in Daddy B. Nice's Comprehensive Index. ************* October 1, 2010: Daddy B. Nice's ProfileNever underestimate the power of the printed word. After all these years of undeserved obscurity and unavailability, chronicled on these pages by Daddy B. Nice, Glenn Jones' Southern Soul masterpiece "Baby Come Home" is available. Now everyone can with the click of a mouse listen to the YouTube version of this wonderful tune: the epitome of Southern Soul. "Baby Come Home" by Glenn Jones --Daddy B. Nice ******************** (Scroll down to "Tidbits" section for the latest updates on Glenn Jones.) ******************** Daddy B. Nice's Original Critique: Prior to 1998 and the release of "Baby Come Home," Glenn Jones' considerable body of material wasn't of much interest to the Southern Soul-inclined listener. The typical Jones song was an "urban smooth" ballad in the mold of Freddy Jackson and Luther Vandross. But like so many other black artists approaching the new millennium, Glenn Jones sniffed the R&B currents blowing Southern Soul his way and took a big chance, left the major labels that had been his bread and butter, and signed with a small label (SAR). The result, "Baby Come Home," from the CD It's Time, became a one-of-a-kind hit single (#5 on the R&B charts) and one of the "Ten Most Played Records For 2000," according to "Billboard Monitor." And yet, even the commercial and critical accolades given this single failed to do justice to the one-on-one, plaintive intimacy the song evoked in listeners. The song concerned an ambivalent lover's plea for reconciliation. "Yes, she's out of my life, But I can't get her out of my mind. There's no use in trying, Just a waste of time." Jones' lean, yearning tenor was the centerpiece, but the song (written by Jones and Raymond Watkins) was also stunningly original in musical conception. An oboe-like melodic line, a faux-violin swirl of background color, and not least a stirring female chorus (Pam Trotter, Audrey Wheeler, and Cheryl Jones) helped to lift the unique melody far above the standard ballad fare. "So then I go out in the streets, And to all the strangers I meet, When they smile at me, I can't help but think how it used to be." If "Baby Come Home" fell a little short of the artistic heft of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come," Tyrone Davis's "Where Are You, Lady," or Latimore's "Let's Straighten It Out," it nevertheless deserved to rank as one of the worthiest successors to those Southern Soul benchmarks. And the fact that Jones has neither preceded nor succeeded "Baby Come Home" with anything remotely in its class is simply further evidence that a great song only comes along once in a great while--sometimes only once in a lifetime. Glenn Jones marks the Southern Soul borderline with classic slow-jam urban R&B. Anyone who wonders what makes a Southern Soul ballad different from an "urban" ballad will find the answer by comparing the gospel-tinged R&B classic "Baby Come Home" with just about any other song in Jones' own urban-smooth catalog. --Daddy B. Nice About Glenn Jones Glenn Jones was born in 1962 in Jacksonville, Florida. He began his career as a gospel singer, working with the Reverend James Cleveland and the Mighty Clouds of Joy, among others. Urged to try secular music by producer Norman Connors, Jones signed with RCA in 1983, issuing a series of R&B LP's and songs, including "I Am Somebody," "Talk Me Into It," and "Show Me," a duet with Dionne Warwick.
Song's Transcendent Moment "So baby, come home,
Tidbits 1. August 2, 2006. Glenn Jones has a new album out on Shanachie Records. The disc, Forever: Timeless R&B Classics, features old-school ballads such as "Where Is The Love?" and the Bobby Womack standard, "I Wish He Didn't Trust Me So Much." Sadly, Jones does not include "Baby Come Home," his own peerless classic, even though the recording isn't on any other available discs.
If You Liked. . . You'll Love If you liked Joe Cocker's and Jennifer Warnes' "Up Where We Belong," you'll be equally drawn to Glenn Jones' "Baby Come Home." Honorary "B" Side "Oh Girl" |
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