Baby Won’t You Please Come Home | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
| D7 | B7 | Em7 | A7#5 |
Verse 1
||: D7 | B7 | Em7 | A7 :||
Baby won’t you please come home, ’cause your mama’s all alone.
I have cried in vain, never no more to call your name.
When you left you broke my heart, ’cause I never thought we’d part.
Turnaround 1
| G G#dim7 | A7 B7 |
Every hour in the day you hear me say,
| Em7 A7 | D7 B7 | Em7 A7 | D7 A7 |
baby please come home, baby please come home.
Solo
||: D7 | B7 | Em7 | A7 :|| x3
| G7 G#dim7 | A7 B7 |
| Em7 A7 | D7 B7 | Em7 A7 | D7 A7 |
Verse 2
Baby won’t you please come home, ’cause your mama’s all alone.
I have cried in vain, never no more to call your name.
When you left you broke my heart, ’cause I never thought we’d part.
Turnaround 2
| G G#dim7 | A7 B7 |
Every hour in the day you hear me say,
| Em7 A7 | D7 B7 | Em7 A7 | D7 B7 |
baby please come home, baby please come home.
| Em7 | Gm7 | D7 N.C | N.C D7 | D7 |
I said Baby, please come on home.
Baby Won’t You Please Come Home Chords: Explore Classic Jazz/Blues Progressions
Baby Won’t You Please Come Home features classic jazz/blues chord movements, built around the familiar I7 – VIx7 – II – V progression, with two II – V – I turnarounds adding harmonic interest.
Here’s the verse progression:
||: D7 (I) | B7 (VIx) | Em7 (II) | A7 (V) :||
There’s TAB available for how I played this in the video—here’s a link to that part of the lesson: Baby Won’t You Please Come Home Guitar Lesson + TAB.
The turnaround shifts the focus by starting on chord IV and ascending, providing a strong contrast to the verse:
| G (IV) G#dim7 (#IVdim7) | A7 (V) B7 (VIx) |
| Em7 (II) A7 (V) | D7 (I) B7 (VIx) |
| Em7 (II) A7 (V) | D7 (I) A7 (V) |
These two progressions create the perfect foundation for practising modal scales—particularly Mixolydian and Dorian—as well as arpeggios.
Once you’ve mastered these, all you’ll need as a reference is a simple chord chart. Here’s one I made for you.
Baby Won’t You Please Come Home Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Baby Won’t You Please Come Home chord chart PDF.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: Baby Won’t You Please Come Home chord chart iReal Pro.
Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key. This is essential if you are to become great at soloing, you must take these types of tunes through all twelve keys, just like Charlie Parker did.
Use Baby Won’t You Please Come Home to develop your soloing skills over a jazz standard using modes and arpeggios.
Once you’ve played through the chord progression and identified each chord’s function, you must keep this in mind as you solo. The key approach here is new chord = new scale/arpeggio.
For example, when playing over Em7 (chord II), you can use E Dorian, an Em7 arpeggio, or even the Conspirian scale.
For A7 (chord V), options include A major pentatonic, A Mixolydian, or an A7 arpeggio.
It’s essential to be able to do this across the entire fretboard. Once this becomes second nature, the next step is arpeggio substitution, which creates a richer harmonic sound.
For A7, you could use a C#m7b5 arpeggio, naturally incorporating the dominant 9 extension. You could even extend to a dominant 7b9 sound, adding an altered flavour.
By focusing on the upper tones of the dom7b9, you’ll find a Gdim7 arpeggio, which can be shifted in minor thirds, allowing you to move the same idea up or down the neck.
While this concept may seem complex, it ultimately comes down to mastering the fundamentals across all five CAGED positions and in all twelve keys.
In the TAB lesson (link above), you’ll find a complete solo guide, detailing all the arpeggios and scales used in the improvised solo.
Baby Won’t You Please Come Home is a jazz standard!
Written by Clarence Williams, this jazz/blues classic has been performed by legends such as Bessie Smith, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, and Ella Fitzgerald. With such an esteemed history, it has certainly earned its place among the great jazz standards.
As you learn Baby Won’t You Please Come Home, try playing the chord progression while simultaneously singing the root notes and saying the Roman numeral function of each chord.
Doing this will help you internalise the numerical relationships between the chords, rather than just memorising their names.
Making the switch from thinking in chord names to Roman numerals is essential for mastering jazz soloing—it’s the key to navigating chord changes freely across different keys.
If this feels too challenging in a jazz context, start by familiarising yourself with my top 10 chord progressions to build a solid foundation.
Baby Won’t You Please Come Home Chords: Continue Learning
Want to master this song? Check out the full TAB lesson here: Baby Won’t You Please Come Home (Bessie Smith) Guitar Lesson with TAB.
Alternatively, here are five similar tunes you might enjoy: