Lee Wiley (October 9, 1908 – December 11, 1975) was an American jazz singer… Read Full Bio ↴Lee Wiley (October 9, 1908 – December 11, 1975) was an American jazz singer, popular in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.

Wiley was born in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma. While still in her early teens, she left home to pursue a singing career with the Leo Reisman band. Her career was temporarily interrupted by a fall while horseback riding. Wiley suffered temporary blindness, but recovered, and at the age of 19 was back with Reisman again, with whom she recorded three songs: "Take It From Me," "Time On My Hands," and her own composition, "Got The South In My Soul." She sang with Paul Whiteman and later, the Casa Loma Orchestra. A collaboration with composer Victor Young resulted in several songs for which Wiley wrote the lyrics, including "Got The South in My Soul" and "Anytime, Anyday, Anywhere," the latter an R&B hit in the 1950s.

In 1939, Wiley recorded eight Gershwin songs on 78s with a small group for Liberty Music Shops. The set sold well and was followed by 78s dedicated to the music of Cole Porter (1940) and Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart (1940 and 1954), Harold Arlen (1943), and 10" LPs dedicated to the music of Vincent Youmans and Irving Berlin (1951). The players on these recordings included Bunny Berigan, Bud Freeman, Max Kaminsky, Fats Waller, Billy Butterfield, Bobby Hackett, Eddie Condon, Stan Freeman, Cy Walter, and the bandleader Jess Stacy, to whom Wiley was married for a number of years. These influential albums launched the concept of a "songbook" (often featuring lesser-known songs), which was later widely imitated by other singers.

Wiley's career made a resurgence in 1950 with the much admired ten-inch album Night in Manhattan. In 1954, she opened the very first Newport Jazz Festival accompanied by Bobby Hackett. Later in the decade she recorded two of her finest albums, West of the Moon (1956) and A Touch of the Blues (1957). In the 1960s, Wiley retired, although she acted in a 1963 television film, Something About Lee Wiley, which told her life story. The film stimulated interest in the singer. Her last public appearance was a concert in Carnegie Hall in 1972 as part of the New York Jazz Festival, where she was enthusiastically received.

Baby Won't You Please Come Home
Lee Wiley Lyrics

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I've got the blues, I feel so lonely
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

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Lee Wiley's song "Baby Won't You Please Come Home" explores the emotions of loneliness and heartbreak after a loved one has left. The song opens with the singer expressing their sadness, saying they have the blues and feel lonely. They admit they would give anything for their loved one to understand their pain and return to them. In the chorus, the singer plea for their loved one to return, repeating the line "Baby, won't you please come home." The singer then goes on to explain that they have tried to forget about their loved one, but they cannot help but think of them every hour of the day. The song ends with the singer detailing their financial troubles and the need for their loved one to return to them.

Baby Won't You Please Come HomeLee Wiley Lyrics

Elizabeth Kuster

Baby Won't You Please Come Home
Lee Wiley Lyrics