Released 1967 (1967) Writer(s) John Sebastian | Genre Pop "Darlin' Be Home Soon"
(1967) "Six O'Clock"
(1967) | |
"Full Measure"
(1966) "Darlin' Be Home Soon"
(1967) | ||
"Darlin' Be Home Soon" (or "Darling Be Home Soon") is a song written by John Sebastian of The Lovin' Spoonful for the soundtrack of the 1966 Francis Ford Coppola film You're a Big Boy Now. It has been described as "...one of the most heartfelt songs about being away from a loved one, written from the point of view of a musician on the road writing a letter." It appeared on The Lovin' Spoonful's 1967 soundtrack album You're a Big Boy Now and was released as a single, reaching #15 on the US pop charts. In the same year, a version by Bobby Darin reached #93 on the US charts, saxophonist Bud Shank put the track on his album A Spoonful of Jazz, and Billie Davis put it on the B-side of a single in the UK.
Sebastian performed his composition at Woodstock; it was the fourth song out of the five he performed at the 1969 music festival in White Lake, New York.
In 1969 "Darlin' Be Home Soon" appeared on Joe Cocker's Joe Cocker! album; it became a standard of Cocker's, appearing on many compilations and "best of"s. The song was performed by Slade and appears on their successful 1972 live album Slade Alive!. In the same year The Association almost made the top 100 in the US with a single (#104) taken from Waterbeds in Trinidad!
The other charting versions of the song are by the Barra MacNeils (1993, #23 Canadian and on their album Closer to Paradise) and Let Loose (1996, #65 UK as a single, and on the album Rollercoaster).