"Daddy's Home" is a song by American

doo-wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a subgenre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, ...

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Shep and the Limelites. The song was written by the three members of the band, James "Shep" Sheppard (1935–1970), Clarence Bassett (1936–2005) and Charles Baskerville. The group recorded the original version of "Daddy's Home" on February 1, 1961, and it was released on Hull Records in March 1961 with the B-side being "This I Know". The song is considered a sequel to the Heartbeats' song " A Thousand Miles Away", with the closing line in the coda being: "I'm not a thousand miles away". "Daddy's Home" reached no. 2 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' popular music chart in May 1961. It was kept from No.1 by " Travelin' Man" by

Ricky Nelson Eric Hilliard "Ricky" Nelson (May 8, 1940 – December 31, 1985) was an American musician and actor. From age eight, he starred alongside his family in the radio and television series ''The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet''. In 1957, he began a ...

. Later songs by the band were not as successful as "Daddy's Home", but still sold well.

Part of a song cycle

The song is an example of James Sheppard's legacy of composing of rock 'n' roll's first-ever

song cycle A song cycle () is a group, or cycle (music), cycle, of individually complete Art song, songs designed to be performed in sequence, as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online'' The songs are either for solo voice or an ensemble, or rarely a combinat ...

titles, telling the story of a relationship, beginning with going home to his girl, and further twists along the way, like getting married, celebrating their anniversary, problems encountered etc. The songs that told this story cycle were famously " A Thousand Miles Away", "500 Miles to Go", both with the Heartbeats; and continued with "Daddy's Home", "Three Steps from the Altar," "Our Anniversary", and "What Did Daddy Do?" for Shep and the Limelites.

Chart history

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Covers

The song was

covered Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of ...

by many artists including P. J. Proby (1970),

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American guitarist, composer, and bandleader. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestra ...

(1971),

Jermaine Jackson Jermaine LaJuane Jacksun (né Jackson; born December 11, 1954) is an American singer, songwriter and bassist. He is known for being a member of the Jackson family. From 1964 to 1975, Jermaine was second vocalist after his brother Michael of the ...

(1972),

Toots and the Maytals The Maytals, known from 1972 to 2020 as Toots and the Maytals, are a Jamaican musical group, one of the best known ska and rocksteady vocal groups. The Maytals were formed in the early 1960s and were key figures in popularizing reggae music. ...

('' Funky Kingston'' 1973),

The Carpenters The Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo consisting of siblings Karen Carpenter, Karen (1950–1983) and Richard Carpenter (musician), Richard Carpenter (born 1946). They produced a distinctive soft musical style, combining ...

(‘’ Live In Japan’’ 1974, Richard Carpenter lead), Junior English, and

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is a British singer and actor. He has total sales of over 21.5 million singles in the United Kingdom and, as of 2012, was the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart histo ...

(1981).

Jermaine Jackson

covered the song for his 1972 debut solo album, '' Jermaine'', and it was released as the 2nd single from the album. His version featured the rest of the Jackson 5 on backing vocals. The single peaked at number 9 on the US

Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), ...

and number 3 in Canada in March 1973. ''

Record World ''Record World'' magazine was one of three major weekly music industry trade magazines in the United States, with ''Billboard'' and '' Cashbox''. It was founded in 1946 as ''Music Vendor''. In 1964, it was changed to ''Record World'' under the ...

'' said of this version "Beautifully produced, this funky ballad should be a natural winner." His version was sampled in the 1973 break-in record " Super Fly Meets Shaft" (US #31).

Chart history

=Weekly charts

=Year-end charts

Cliff Richard version

British singer

released a live version as a single for the Christmas period in 1981. It was the second single to be lifted from his 1981 album '' Wired for Sound''. The song became an international hit reaching number 2 on the UK Singles Chart and number 23 on US

in March 1982 - almost twenty years after the release of the original by Shep and the Limelites. In Britain, it was certified Gold by the BPI for sales over 500,000. A video clip was recorded to accompany the single release instead of using footage of the original BBC live recording.Cliff Richard - "Daddy's Home" (video clip)
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Chart performance and certifications

= Weekly charts

=Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

* * * {{authority control 1961 songs 1961 singles 1972 singles 1981 singles Motown singles EMI Records singles Cliff Richard songs Jermaine Jackson songs