Kay Starr was successful in every field of music she tried, jazz, country and pop. But her roots were in jazz, Billie Holiday, considered by many the greatest jazz singer of all time, called Starr "the only white woman who could sing the blues."
She is best remembered for introducing two songs that became #1 hits in the 1950s, "Wheel of Fortune" and "The Rock And Roll Waltz".
Kay Starr was born on a reservation in Dougherty, Oklahoma. Her father, Harry, was a full-blooded Iroquois Indian; her mother, Annie, was of mixed Irish and American Indian heritage. When her father got a job installing water sprinkler systems, the family moved to Dallas, Texas.
While her father worked for the Automatic Sprinkler Company, her mother raised chickens, and Kay used to sing to the chickens in the coop. As a result of the fact that her aunt, Nora, was impressed by her singing, she began to sing at the age of seven on a Dallas radio station, WRR, first in a talent competition where she finished third one week and won every week thereafter, then with her own weekly fifteen minute show. She sang pop and "hillbilly" songs with a piano accompaniment. By the age of ten, she was making $3 a night, a lot of money in the Depression days.
As a result of her father's changing jobs, her family moved to Memphis, Tennessee, and she continued performing on the radio, singing "Western swing music," still mostly a mix of country and pop. It was while she was on the Memphis radio station WMPS that, as a result of misspellings in her fan mail, she and her parents decided to give her the name "Kay Starr". At the age of fifteen, she was chosen to sing with the Joe Venuti orchestra. Venuti had a contract to play in the Peabody Hotel in Memphis which called for his band to feature a girl singer, which he did not have; Venuti's road manager heard her on the radio, and suggested her to Venuti. Because she was still in junior high school, her parents insisted that Venuti take her home no later than midnight.
Although she had brief stints in 1939 with Bob Crosby and Glenn Miller (who hired her in July of that year when his regular singer, Marion Hutton, was sick), she spent most of her next few years with Venuti, until he dissolved his band in 1942. It was, however, with Miller that she cut her first record: "Baby Me"/"Love with a Capital You." It was not a great success, in part because the band played in a key more appropriate for Marion Hutton, which was less suited for Kay's vocal range.
Baby Won't You Please Come Home
Kay Starr Lyrics
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I'd give the world if I could only
Make you understand
It truly would be grand
I'm gonna telephone my baby
Ask him won't you please come home
Oh, when you gone
I'm worried all day long
Baby, won't you please come home
Baby, won't you please come home
I have tried in vain
Nevermore to call your name
When you left you broke my heart
That will never make us part
Every hour in the day
You will hear me say
Baby, won't you please come home
I mean, baby, won't you please come home
Baby, won't you please come home
'Cause your mama's all alone
I have tried in vain
Nevermore to call your name
When you left you broke my heart
That will never make us part
Landlord's gettin' worse
I gotta move May the first
Baby, won't you please come home
I need money
Baby, won't you please come home
Kay Starr's song Baby Won't You Please Come Home is a powerful expression of longing and loneliness. The lyrics convey the miserably distraught state of mind of the singer, who is completely immobilized by her love for someone who has left her. She has the blues, she is feeling lonely and depressed, and she is willing to do anything, including giving up the world if it would mean getting back her love. The bridge of the song calls out to the listener with a desperate need for comprehension and the deep bond she shared with her love, longing for its restoration, it would be "grand" making the past a blissful reality again.
Line by Line Meaning
I've got the blues, I feel so lonely
I am feeling really down and sad because I am all alone.
I'd give the world if I could only
I would do anything if it meant that you would come back to me.
Make you understand
I want to communicate to you how much I miss you and how much I want you to come home.
It truly would be grand
If you were to come back to me, it would be absolutely wonderful.
I'm gonna telephone my baby
I am going to call my loved one to ask them to come back to me.
Ask him won't you please come home
I will ask them, 'please come home to me.'
Oh, when you gone
After you left me,
I'm worried all day long
I am constantly worried and anxious without you.
Baby, won't you please come home
Please come back to me, my baby.
I have tried in vain
I have already tried and failed to get you to come back to me.
Nevermore to call your name
I don't want to keep calling your name in vain.
When you left you broke my heart
Your departure broke my heart and left me in a lot of pain.
That will never make us part
I don't want your departure to be the end of our love story.
Every hour in the day
All day, every day,
You will hear me say
I will keep asking you to come back to me.
Baby, won't you please come home
Please come back to me, my baby.
I mean, baby, won't you please come home
Seriously, please come back to me, my baby.
'Cause your mama's all alone
I'm all alone and need you to come back to me.
Landlord's gettin' worse
My landlord is making things difficult for me and I need to move out by May 1st.
I gotta move May the first
I have to move out of my place by May 1st.
Baby, won't you please come home
Please come back to me, my baby.
I need money
I need you to come back to me and bring money with you to help me out.
Baby, won't you please come home
Please come back to me, my baby.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Royalty Network, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Peermusic Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Charles Warfield, Clarence Williams
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind