Baby Don't You Wanna Come Home

Album: This Is The Beginning (1958)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song isn't all that remarkable, but it was the first one Buddy Guy ever recorded. He put it to tape at the Baton Rouge radio station WXOK, where his friend, a DJ named Ray Meadows who went by Diggy Doo, set him up with time in the studio.

    When Buddy moved to Chicago to pursue his passion, he took the recording (on reel-to-reel tape) with him as a demo. His first stop was Chess Records, where Muddy Waters recorded. Buddy talked his way in and ended up watching a session, but he didn't meet the boss, Leonard Chess. He left the tape with the receptionist and never saw it again.

    Later on, Guy did get hired by Chess, where he played guitar for many of their artists and recorded some singles on his own. Someone must have found his recording of "Baby Don't You Wanna Come Home" because it ended up on his 2001 compilation This Is The Beginning.
  • Lyrically, the song is pretty basic, with lines like:

    Darling let me hold your hand
    I wanna just be your man


    But as Buddy Guy put it, the song has a "good snap" to it. Not bad for a young man who had never been out of Louisiana.

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