Come Back Baby

The record earned a chart hit despite starting life as a B-side. When Ray Charles released his version in 1954 under the shortened title "Come Back," as the flip side of "I Got a Woman," the song picked up airplay and climbed to number four on the R&B singles chart. Charles, the pianist and singer known to fellow musicians as Brother Ray, also took the songwriting credit, which remained on the track even after it reappeared as "Come Back Baby" on his 1957 album Ray Charles.

The song itself had older roots. Walter Davis, a blues singer and pianist, wrote and recorded it in 1940. Charles's Atlantic-era recording reshaped it into something of his own, part of the work in which he blended blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, and gospel into the music that helped pioneer soul during the 1950s.

Other musicians kept returning to it across the following decades. Lowell Fulson recorded it in early 1950, and Lightnin' Hopkins and John Lee Hooker each cut multiple versions. Stevie Wonder included one on his 1962 album Tribute to Uncle Ray, while Dave Van Ronk performed it solo on guitar for his 1963 Folkways LP Folksinger. Aretha Franklin recorded a faster-paced take for her 1967 album Lady Soul, and Hot Tuna closed out the decade by putting it on their 1970 debut. Johnny Winter later featured it on his 2011 album Roots, with John Medeski on organ.