“Come Back Darling” was written by Lester Flatt. Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys recorded it for Columbia at Castle Studio in the Tulane Hotel in Nashville on 21 November 1950, a session that also produced “I’m Waiting to Hear You Call Me Darling,” “Head Over Heels in Love with You,” “The Old Hometown,” “I’ll Stay Around” and “We Can’t Be Darlings Anymore.” Flatt sang lead with Curly Seckler on tenor, Earl Scruggs played banjo, Seckler mandolin, Benny Sims fiddle and Jody Rainwater bass. Columbia issued it on a 78 (20777) in 1951, backed with “I’m Waiting to Hear You Call Me Darling.”
The singer sits by his window reading a letter in which his sweetheart says she will come back, and he asks her to do it: he cannot be happy whatever he does, the nights are lonely without her, and he cannot forget loving her.
Flatt recorded it again in September 1975 at Soundshop Studio in Nashville for the Flying Fish album Lester Raymond Flatt. Other versions include Mac Martin and the Dixie Travelers on Backtrackin’ (1971), Larry Sparks on Blue Sparks (Rebel, 1983) and the Bluegrass Album Band on The Bluegrass Album, Vol. 3: California Connection (Rounder, 1983).
