Sonny Rollins composed "Come, Gone" as a contrafact built on the chord changes of the 1918 standard "After You've Gone" by Turner Layton and Henry Creamer. Rollins wrote a new melody over the existing harmonic framework, a common practice in jazz that allows composers to create original material while drawing on familiar harmonic ground. The tune first appeared on Rollins's landmark 1957 album Way Out West, recorded in Los Angeles on March 7 of that year with Ray Brown on bass and Shelly Manne on drums. Rollins was in Los Angeles at the time with the Max Roach Quintet, and the recording session took place at three in the morning after nightclub gigs, capturing a spontaneous energy that infused the entire album. The piano-less trio format gave the musicians ample room for interplay, and the tune's concise structure lends itself to brisk tempos and double-time playing by the rhythm section. "Come, Gone" reflects Rollins's approach to thematic improvisation, where solos develop motifs with coherence and invention rather than simply running through chord changes. The tune fits within the Western and cowboy-themed concept of Way Out West, an album that balanced novelty with serious musicianship. It remains closely associated with that original recording and has not been widely covered by other artists, functioning more as a deep cut in Rollins's catalog than a frequently performed standard.
