Mieko Hirota with the Billy Taylor Trio -- Comin' Home Baby

 

Soon after I had posted up the weekly Reminiscings of Youth on Shirley Bassey's scintillating "Goldfinger" for the 007 movie of the same name, I received a comment from someone who pointed out that only the late Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）and Hatsumi Shibata（しばたはつみ）could approach doing a great cover of that theme song.

Maybe this song isn't exactly the one to put in as proof in the pudding when it comes to the above claim since it requires a certain coolness and sultriness here compared to the brass in "Goldfinger". However, I have had to keep reminding herself that Hirota was still all of around eighteen years of age (heck in that outfit on the cover in the thumbnail above, she still appears like a high school kid!) when she released her "Miko in New York" in 1965 and knocked me off my seat hearing her scat like a pro for "Comin' Home Baby", one of the tracks. As much as she was one of the classic kayo singers with hits like "Ningyo no Ie"（人形の家）, she was also a pretty snazzy jazz chanteuse as well. Might I also give my compliments to the Billy Taylor Trio and their inclusion of "Sakura, Sakura" within the arrangement.

Ben Tucker had first come up with the 1961 instrumental jazz tune "Comin' Home Baby" with the Dave Bailey Quintet recording it. Bob Dorough then added lyrics after which The Velvet Fog, Mel Tormé, sang it into a hit in 1962. I was able to get the information from the Wikipedia article on the song.