Songoftheday 9/29/12 - Thinkin' back in time when love was only in the mind, I realize ain't no second chance...

Patti Austin w/James Ingram - "Baby Come To Me"
from the album Every Home Should Have One (1981)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (two weeks)
Weeks in the top-40: 18

Today's Song of the Day is by jazz-soul singer Patti Austin and go-to session vocalist James Ingram. Austin, a native New Yorker from Harlem, got her start back in the 60s, and had her first minor R&B hit "The Family Tree" in 1969, though her first full-length album wouldn't come until 1976. In 1981, she guested on godfather Quincy Jones' The Dude album, and had a top-20 R&B hit with "Razzmatazz".

That same year, her album Every Home Should Have One was released on Quincy's record label, Qwest. The first single from the set, "Do You Love Me?" and "The Genie", became a double-sided #1 hit on the Billboard Dance Club Play chart. The followup single, "Every Home Should Have One", was Patti's first pop Hot 100 chart hit at the end of 1981, peaking at #62. For her third single, they went with the ballad "Baby Come To Me", featuring James Ingram (who had two top-20 hits with Quincy in 1982, the highest being "One Hundred Ways") in a soulful love duet. It was written by Rod Temperton (who helped quite a bit with Michael Jackson's Thriller), and produced by Quincy himself. The single was first released in the spring of 1982, where it spent a month in the Hot 100, peaking at #73, while making the top-40 of the R&B chart.

But the luck of being chosen as the love theme for Luke and Laura on the wildly popular soap opera General Hospital that resurrected interest in the song. Now, of course, Luke raped Laura, as part of a drunken rage after he was recruited to go after her by his sister, and then Laura fell in love with him back, even though she was still married, but like television. People went crazy over the song, prompting Qwest to re-release the single, which rocketed back to radio and record stores.

The song topped both the pop and adult-contemporary chart in the beginning of 1983, and also made the top-10 on the R&B chart as well. Over the ocean, the single peaked at #11 in the UK. It would also be Patti's sole time in the pop top-40.

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Country singer Stephanie Winslow and a hit that just missed the country top-40 in 1984 with the song, peaking at #42...

In 1997, Alexander O'Neal and Cherelle (who together had 2 US top-40 hits) paired up for a revamp of the song that was a minor hit in the UK, peaking at #56...

Dutch singer Laura Fygi also took on the song, going more lounge-ish with it...

..and in 2004 Daryl Hall and Kenny G covered "Baby Come To Me"...

 ..and in 2010, reggae artists Fiona and Stevie Face swung the tune to the tropics...

Up tomorrow: An Australian band gets along with an "other" guy.