"Darling Be Home Soon"
U.S. picture sleeve
Single by the Lovin' Spoonful
from the album You're a Big Boy Now soundtrack
B-side"Darlin' Companion"
ReleasedFebruary 1967 (1967-02)[1]
RecordedOctober 1966 (1966-10)[2]
GenreFolk rock[3]
Length3:32
LabelKama Sutra
Songwriter(s)John Sebastian
Producer(s)Erik Jacobsen
The Lovin' Spoonful singles chronology
"Nashville Cats"
(1966) 		"Darling Be Home Soon"
(1967) 		"Six O'Clock"
(1967)
Audio
"Darling Be Home Soon" on YouTube

"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 appeared on the Lovin' Spoonful's 1967 soundtrack album You're a Big Boy Now. 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.

Writing and recording

Coppola commissioned Sebastian to write music for the film, and for one scene wanted a song with a similar mood and tempo to "Monday, Monday" by the Mamas and the Papas. Sebastian said that he wrote the song as "pleas for a partner to spend a few minutes talking before leaving.... [but] you never knew if the other person was actually there listening or was already gone". Coppola approved the song, and it was recorded by the band but with session musician Billy LaVorgna rather than Joe Butler on drums. The arrangement was by Artie Schroeck. After the recording was completed and the musicians left, the producer, Erik Jacobsen, discovered that an engineer had mistakenly erased Sebastian's vocal track, so he had to re-record it the next day. Sebastian said: "What you hear on the record is me, a half hour after learning that my original vocal track had been erased. You can even hear my voice quiver a little at the end. That was me thinking about the vocal we lost and wanting to kill someone."[4] 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."[5]

Billboard described the song as a "medium-paced rock ballad given that 'extra special' Lovin' Spoonful treatment" and should be a "smash" on the Billboard Hot 100.[6] The critic Richard Goldstein negatively reviewed the single for The Village Voice.[7] Goldstein had been an early champion of the band,[8] but he considered "Darling Be Home Soon" to be "the first disappointing Lovin' single I can remember", disparaging it as a tribute to Bob Dylan which "lacks the master's raunchiness".[7]

Personnel

According to John Sebastian:[9]

The Lovin' Spoonful

Additional musicians

Charts

Weekly chart performance
Chart (1967) Peak
position
Canada Top Singles (RPM)[10] 8
Netherlands (Veronica Top 40)[11] 15
Netherlands (Hilversum 3 Top 30)[12] 16
U.K. (Disc and Music Echo)[13][nb 1] 34
U.K. (Melody Maker)[16] 45
U.K. (Record Retailer)[17] 44
U.S. Billboard Hot 100[18] 15
U.S. Cash Box Top 100[19] 15
U.S. Record World 100 Top Pops[20] 11

Other recordings of the song

Notes

  1. ^ The single debuted at number 34 on Disc and Music Echo's Top 50 chart for the week ending March 25, 1967.[13] In the magazine's next issue, the editors condensed their chart to a Top 30,[14] and the single did not appear on it.[15]

References

  1. ^ Anon. (1990). Anthology (Liner notes). The Lovin' Spoonful. Rhino. R2 70944.
  2. ^ Boone & Moss 2014, p. 164.
  3. ^ Unterberger 2003, p. 61.
  4. ^ Myers 2017, pp. 72–79.
  5. ^ Matthew Greenwald. "Darling Be Home Soon – Joe Cocker | Song Info". AllMusic. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
  6. ^ "Spotlight Singles" (PDF). Billboard. February 4, 1967. p. 16. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  7. ^ a b Goldstein, Richard (February 2, 1967). "Pop Eye: Alive and Well". The Village Voice. pp. 19, 32.
  8. ^ Heylin 2007, p. 205.
  9. ^ Myers 2017, pp. 77.
  10. ^ "RPM 100". RPM. April 8, 1967. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
  11. ^ "Nederlandse Top 40 – The Lovin' Spoonful" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
  12. ^ "The Lovin' Spoonful – Darling Be Home Soon" (in Dutch). Dutch Single Top 100. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
  13. ^ a b "Chart Topper Top 50". Disc and Music Echo. March 25, 1967. p. 3.
  14. ^ Coleman, Ray (April 1, 1967). "DISC Chart switches to Top 30". Disc and Music Echo. p. 2.
  15. ^ "Disc and Echo Top 30". Disc and Music Echo. April 1, 1967. p. 3.
  16. ^ "Melody Maker Pop 50". Melody Maker. March 25, 1967. p. 2.
  17. ^ "Lovin' Spoonful". Official Charts Company. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
  18. ^ "The Lovin' Spoonful Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Archived from the original on May 21, 2022. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
  19. ^ "Cash Box Top 100 – Week of March 18, 1967". Cash Box. March 18, 1967. p. 4.
  20. ^ "Record World 100 Top Pops – Week of March 25, 1967". Record World. March 25, 1967. p. 23.
  21. ^ https://www.billboard.com/artist/bobby-darin/chart-history/asi/ Billboard Hot 100 chart, Bobby Darin
  22. ^ "RPM Top 100 Singles - August 26, 1967" (PDF).
  23. ^ "www.allmusic.com". allmusic.com. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  24. ^ "Bubbling Under the Hot 100", Billboard, June 3, 1972, p. 37
  25. ^ "RPM Top 100 Singles - June 24, 1972" (PDF).
  26. ^ "www.allmusic.com". allmusic.com. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
  27. ^ "RPM Top 100 Singles - January 17, 1994" (PDF).
  28. ^ https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-barra-mcneils-emc "Barra MacNeils", The Canadian Encyclopedia

Sources

Categories