"Come Back" | ||||
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Dutch single cover
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Single by The J. Geils Band | ||||
from the album Love Stinks | ||||
B-side | "Takin' You Down" | |||
Released | January 1980 | |||
Format | Vinyl record (7") | |||
Recorded | 1979 at Long View Farm, North Brookfield, Massachusetts |
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Genre | Rock, new wave | |||
Length |
5:10 (album) 3:32 (single edit) |
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Label | EMI | |||
Songwriter(s) | Peter Wolf, Seth Justman | |||
Producer(s) | Seth Justman | |||
The J. Geils Band singles chronology | ||||
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"Come Back" is a song written by Seth Justman and Peter Wolf that was first released by The J. Geils Band on their 1980 album Love Stinks. "Come Back" was the first single released from the album, and reached the US Top 40, peaking at #32 and remaining in the Top 40 for five weeks. It peaked at #24 for three weeks in Canada. It also made Billboard's Club Play Singles chart, peaking at #69. The song remains in the rotation of classic rock radio stations.
Justman provides extensive keyboards, which Associated Press critic James Simon feels gives the song "a little extra zing."
Rolling Stone critic Dave Marsh praised "Come Back" as a "full-scale showcase" for the band, claiming that it came "very close to the topnotch hard rock Geils has always threatened to make and too rarely delivered." On the other hand, in the 4th edition of The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, critic Rob Sheffield calls the song a "failed Eurodisco experiment."Boston Globe critic Steve Morse describes the song as "discoish." Bill Flanagan, writing in the Boston Globe remarked that although "Come Back" has an "upbeat surface," the song conveys the anxiety that lurks below. Craig Allen of NJ 101.5 describes the song as an "overlooked 1980 J. Geils gem."
Subsequent to its initial appearance on Love Stinks, "Come Back" was released on several J. Geils Band compilation albums, including Flashback: The Best of the J. Geils Band, Centerfold, The Very Best J. Geils Band Album Ever and Best of The J. Geils Band. In the Netherlands, it was also released as the B-side of the 12" maxi-single "Centerfold."