“Baby Won’t You Please Come Home” – Eva Taylor (1922)

Of all of the songs credited to and published by Clarence Williams, “Baby Won’t You Please Come Home” is one of his best known. Here we have the first recorded version of that song from late 1922, featuring Clarence on piano and his wife Eva Taylor on vocals.

The song would go on to become a jazz standard, recorded by every big name one can think of: Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis… along with many of the top vocal performers such as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Julie London.

Eva Taylor (also known by her maiden name Irene Joy Gibbons) was a St. Louis vaudeville performer who met Williams in New York in 1920. They married a year later and recorded extensively together for Okeh and Columbia.

In addition to her collaborations with Williams, Eva would go on to sing with many other artists such as the Charleston Chasers and Ben Selvin’s orchestra.

If there ever was a first couple of early jazz, I think it would be Clarence Williams and Eva Taylor. Two married artists who collaborated and performed as equals.

Recorded in New York City on November 25, 1922.
Released as Okeh 4740.

Credits:
Eva Taylor – vocals
Clarence Williams – piano