Story of the song: Long Way Home by Norah Jones

From The Independent archive: Robert Webb on ‘Long Way Home’ by Norah Jones

Jones, whose ‘voice always touches you’ (Getty)

Long Way Home” isn’t the most obvious track on Norah Jones’s sophomore set, Feels Like Home, but it has the best provenance. Tom Waits had sent Jones some demos of songs to suit her hushed, low-tar voice. Among them was this gentle number, penned by the gravel-throated Waits with his wife, Kathleen Brennan. He waited for a reply, but heard nothing.

“I met Tom and Kathleen at a concert he was doing,” Jones says on her website. “Tom asked me if I had listened to the demos he sent me.” She hadn’t, but told Waits that, as a fan, she’d make sure she traced them.

When they turned up, Jones was bowled over. “Long Way Home” was the one, although at first Jones was reluctant to record it. She had covered Waits in concert but found it hard to better the originals.