Shirley Horn's Lyrics for "Come Back To Me"

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