Shirley Horn has long been a favorite jazz singer and pianist of mine. I’m not alone: Miles Davis was a big fan as well. That’s probably why he made a cameo appearance on her 1989 Verve album You Won’t Forget Me. He plays on the title track. Shirley puts lots of space into her chords and piano runs, also lots of pauses and space in her phrasing. It’s her trademark style and I’ve always adored it.
Once after a tough breakup, I couldn’t go see Shirley perform in one of her relatively rare LA appearances. I was already torn up and her ballads are so moving and emotional that I would have crumpled into a teary heap. Songs like, “Where Do You Start”, are about divvying up possessions when breaking up and moving out.
Her uptempo songs reveal a hip, cool side that I’ve always loved. Here are the lyrics to one of those songs, “Come Back to Me”. It’s not to be confused with Vanessa Hudgens’ song of the same name. Horn’s song was written by Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner and you should check out these hip lyrics from the album You Won’t Forget Me.
Hear my voice, where you are
Take a train, steal a car
Hop a freight, grab a star
Come back to me
Catch a flame, catch a breeze
On your hands, on your knees
Swim or fly, only please
Come on back to me
On a mule, on a jet
Put yourself in a net
But come back to me yet
I don’t care, this is where you should be
From the hills, from the shore
Ride the wind to my door, turn the highway into dust
Break the law if you must, move the the world only just
Come back to me
What on earth must I do
Scream and yell till I’m blue
Curse your soul when will you
Come on back to me
Have you gone to the moon
Or the corner saloon
And to crack and to croon
I don’t care, this is where you should be
In a crate, in a trunk
On a horse, on a drunk
On a road or a van
Wrap yourself in saran
Anyway that you can
Come back to me
Come back to me
