Comin' Home Baby!

Mel Tormé

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Comin' Home Baby! Review

by John Bush

Paced by his only hit of the rock era, Comin' Home Baby! is a real crossover record, balancing a few groovy dance numbers (like the title track) with early-'60s cool jazz versions of the standards "Walkin'," "Moanin'," and "On Green Dolphin Street." Though Mel Tormé never made a terrible record -- his crisp voice and ineffable delivery carried all of his dates -- this session has to count as a low point. The constant striving for some sort of jazz-hipster atmosphere relegates one of Tormé's positive attributes -- his excellent scatting -- into little more than a novelty act. Shorty Rogers, who arranged the record except for the two hit hopefuls (Claus Ogerman's "Comin' Home Baby!" and "Right Now"), attempts to equal Marty Paich's excellent arrangement on the mid-'50s records -- and doesn't quite succeed. "Moanin'" is a stale recasting of the superior Lambert, Hendricks, & Ross version, and the child noise on "Dat Dere" is just baffling. Compared to Tormé's other record for Atlantic, Sunday in New York, Comin' Home Baby! is a passé work that understandably can't get much of a reaction from the usually majestic Mel Tormé.

Track Listing

Title/Composer Performer Time Stream
1
Comin' Home Baby!
Bob Dorough / Ben Tucker
Mel Tormé 02:41 SpotifyAmazon
2
Dat Dere
Oscar Brown, Jr. / Bobby Timmons
Mel Tormé 02:58 SpotifyAmazon
3
The Lady's in Love With You
Burton Lane / Frank Loesser
Mel Tormé 03:01 SpotifyAmazon
4
Hi-Fly
Jon Hendricks / Randy Weston
Mel Tormé 03:13 SpotifyAmazon
5
Puttin' on the Ritz
Irving Berlin
Mel Tormé 02:23 SpotifyAmazon
6
Walkin'
Richard Carpenter
Mel Tormé 02:59 SpotifyAmazon
7
Moanin'
Jon Hendricks / Bobby Timmons
Mel Tormé 03:03 SpotifyAmazon
8
Sing You Sinners
Sam Coslow / W. Frank Harling
Mel Tormé 02:27 SpotifyAmazon
9
Whisper Not
Leonard Feather / Benny Golson
Mel Tormé 02:49 SpotifyAmazon
10
On Green Dolphin Street
Bronislaw Kaper / Ned Washington
Mel Tormé 02:56 SpotifyAmazon
11
Sidney's Soliloquy
Jimmy Wisner
Mel Tormé 02:30 SpotifyAmazon
12
Right Now
Herbie Mann / Carl Sigman
Mel Tormé 02:12 SpotifyAmazon
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Comin' Home Baby!

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