Glenn Jones

Daddy B. Nice's #84 ranked Southern Soul Artist

"Baby Come Home"

Glenn Jones

Composed by Glenn Jones and Raymond Watkins

A GLENN JONES SIGHTING!

Daddy B. Nice's Profile

--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.

Jones moved to Jive in the late eighties, solidifying a reputation as a soulful, slow-ballad crooner, reaching the R&B runner-up spot in 1987 with his hit, "We've Only Just Begun." He recorded another hit, "Here I Go Again," for Atlantic.

But it was the release of "Baby Come Home" on the It's Time CD (SAR, 1998) that pushed Jones into the heart of Southern Soul rotations on the Stations of the Deep South. The LP sold 200,000 copies, a remarkable feat for adult R&B, and the single endeared Jones to the growing ranks of chitlin' circuit-oriented deejays.

In 2002 Jones signed with Peak Records, yet another independent label. He continues to be based in Philadelphia.

Glenn Jones' Discography:

1983 Everybody Loves a Winner RCA

1984 Finesse RCA


1986 Take It From Me RCA


1987 Glenn Jones Jive/Novus


1990 All for You Jive/Novus


1992 Here I Go Again Atlantic


1994 Here I Am Atlantic


1996 Feel the Fire P-Vine


1998 It's Time SAR


2002 Feels Good Peak


2006 Forever: Timeless R&B Classics Shanachie

Song's Transcendent Moment

"So baby, come home,
Where your heart belongs to me.
Home is where you know
You have a family."

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.

2. May 19, 2007. Your Daddy B. Nice still gets a lot of "friendly" criticism for having Glenn Jones on the Top 100 Southern Soul chart. All of it vanishes the minute I hear "Baby Come Home" come over the radio, as I did one night last week while listening to WMPR (Jackson, Mississipi) on the Internet. It was a Saturday night (when I rarely tune in) and a deejay I had never heard of before (I believe he later said his name was C. E. Robinson) was playing some very good soul oldies. He played the Chi-Lites' "Have You Seen Her?" (which sounded fantastic) and then queued into Glenn Jones' "Baby Come Home."

Talk about pure Southern Soul. The vocal. The tempo. The melody. The sliver of organ-sounding keyboard. The female back-up, especially. "Baby Come Home" is a veritable primer on how to write and arrange a Southern Soul ballad. You can hear the template underlying the hits of today--"It's Okay" by Steve Perry for example.

But let's face it: "Baby Come Home" is on a whole other level. I don't know if artists like Glenn Jones and Luther Vandross will always be on this Top 100 chart (Vandross' "Think Of You" is his one-shot Southern Soul crossover hit), but I do know a chart based on the great Southern Soul songs (which this chart is) can certainly justify including them. And bottom line, folks: they play 'em on the radio in the dirty, deep South. DBN.

3. Author's Update: August 31, 2008

I was very pleased this week to hear an advertisement of an upcoming Southern Soul concert headlining Glenn Jones. (August 31, 2008, in Vicksburg, with O. B. Buchana, Cupid and Lebrado. See Daddy B. Nice's Concert Calendar.) The premier track from the ad was Jones' singular Southern Soul classic, "Baby Come Home." To hear this song (described below) promoting a concert a decade after its release was sweet indeed, and proof that Jones still has relevance for the Southern Soul fan.

Like the late Luther Vandross's hit, "Think About You," "Baby Come Home" is that rare crossover-into-Southern Soul track by a predominately "urban-smooth" artist, and like Vandross's classic, it still swoops past the Southern Soul rank and file competition like a conquering hero, illustrating for one and all what pure verse-and-chorus R&B can be when performed to perfection. DBN.

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"