Running Back to You

I haven’t been listening to Sam Cooke a whole lot recently, but a few of his songs insist on remaining in my head; one of which is “I’ll Come Running Back to You.” This song features some of Sam Cooke's most poetic (some might say cheesy) lyrics, and is certainly among my favorite Cooke tracks. It's not a happy song, nor is it purely a sad song, but mostly it's a song of resignation. It is not unlike the Dylan/Jeff Buckley song “Mama You Been on my Mind,” in sentiment. In this song, Cooke throw himself out there as "yours, and yours alone," and is thus powerless to affect the outcome of his situation. His lover will either return someday or never return—the story will either be one of persistence rewarded or persistent misery.

The song sticks out to me among Sam's catalog for the style of Sam's singing. It doesn’t feature the excited, brassy enthusiasm of his more upbeat songs ("Twisting the Night Away", for example), nor does it showcase the soft, romantic cooings of his slower ballads ("You Send Me," and "(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons"). Sure, there are a few of his trademark falsetto flips, but really this song seems to walk a more subtly expressive middle ground. Perhaps it is this subtlety that allows me to listen to it over and over again without getting tired of it. I hope that you can enjoy it similarly:

Sam Cooke – I’ll Come Running Back to You (YSI) (dropbox)
Bob Dylan – Mama, You Been on my Mind (YSI) (dropbox)
Jeff Buckley – Mama, You Been on my Mind (YSI) (dropbox)