Take Me Home, Country Roads
"Take Me Home, Country Roads", also known simply as "Country Roads", is a song written by Bill Danoff, Taffy Nivert and John Denver. It was released as a single performed by Denver on April 12, 1971, peaking at number two on Billboard's US Hot 100 singles for the week ending August 28, 1971. The song was a success on its initial release and was certified Gold by the RIAA on August 18, 1971, and Platinum on April 10, 2017.[3] The song became one of John Denver's most popular songs. It has continued to sell, with over 1.6 million digital copies sold in the United States.[4]
"Country Roads" redirects here. For other uses, see Country Road (disambiguation)."Take Me Home, Country Roads"
"Poems, Prayers and Promises"
April 12, 1971
January 1971, New York City
3:17
- Milt Okun
- Susan Ruskin
In 1998, the 1971 recording by John Denver was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[5]
The song is considered a symbol of West Virginia. In March 2014, it became one of the four official state anthems of West Virginia.[6] In 2023, the song was selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in the National Recording Registry.[7]
Composition[edit]
Inspiration for the title line had come while Taffy Nivert and Bill Danoff, who were married, were driving along Clopper Road in Montgomery County, Maryland to a gathering of Nivert's family in Gaithersburg, with Nivert behind the wheel while Danoff played his guitar. "I just started thinking, country roads, I started thinking of me growing up in western New England and going on all these small roads," Danoff said. "It didn't have anything to do with Maryland or anyplace."[8]
To Danoff, the lyric "(t)he radio reminds me of my home far away" in the bridge is quintessentially West Virginian, an allusion to when he listened to the program Saturday Night Jamboree, broadcast from Wheeling, West Virginia, on WWVA at his home in Springfield, Massachusetts during his childhood in the 1950s.[9]
Danoff was influenced by friend and West Virginian actor Chris Sarandon and members of a West Virginia commune who attended Danoff's performances.[9] Of the commune members, Danoff remarked, "They brought their dogs and were a very colorful group of folks, but that is how West Virginia began creeping into the song." While the song was inspired by Danoff's upbringing in Springfield, Massachusetts, he "didn't want to write about Massachusetts because [he] didn't think the word was musical."[9]
Starting December 22, 1970, Denver was heading the New Year's bill at The Cellar Door, with Fat City opening for him, just as Denver had opened at the same club for then-headliner David Steinberg. After the club's post-Christmas reopening night on Tuesday, December 29 (Cellar Door engagements ran from Tuesday to Sunday, and this booking was for two weeks), the three returned to the couple's apartment for an impromptu jam. On the way, Denver's left thumb was broken in a collision. He was rushed to the emergency room, where the thumb was splinted. When they returned to the apartment, Denver said he was "wired, you know."[10]
When Danoff and Nivert ran through what they had of the song they had been working on for about a month, planning to sell to Johnny Cash, Denver decided he had to have it, which prompted them to abandon plans for the sale.[11] The verses and chorus were still missing a bridge, so the three of them went about finishing.
Nivert got out an encyclopedia to learn more about West Virginia. The first thing she encountered was the rhododendron, the state flower, so she kept trying to work the word Rhododendron into the song. Rhododendron was the title that Nivert had written down on the lyric sheet, which they later sent to ASCAP.[9] The three stayed up until 6:00 a.m., changing words and moving lines around.[12]
When they finished, on the morning of Wednesday, December 30, 1970, Denver announced that the song had to go on his next album.[12] Later that night, during Denver's first set, Denver called his two collaborators back to the spotlight, where the trio changed their career trajectories, reading the lyrics from a single, handheld, unfolded piece of paper. According to Len Jaffe, a Washington, D.C.-based singer-songwriter who attended the show where Denver premiered the song, this resulted in a five-minute standing ovation.[13] The next day was Denver's 28th birthday. They recorded it in New York City in January 1971.
"Take Me Home, Country Roads" is written in the key of A major.[14]
Commercial performance and legacy[edit]
"Take Me Home, Country Roads" appeared on the LP Poems, Prayers & Promises and was released as a 45 in the spring of 1971. Original pressings credited the single to "John Denver with Fat City". It broke nationally in mid-April but moved up the charts very slowly. After several weeks, RCA Records called John and told him they were giving up on the single. His response: "No! Keep working on it!" They did, and the single went to number 1 on the Record World Pop Singles Chart and the Cash Box Top 100, and number 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, topped only by "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" by The Bee Gees.
On August 18, 1971, it was certified Gold by the RIAA for a million copies shipped.[15] The song continued to sell in the digital era. As of January 2020, the song has also sold 1,591,000 downloads since it became available digitally.[4]
Denver's recording of "Take Me Home, Country Roads" was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2023.[16]
The song has since become an anthem of the Brisbane Lions and is sung by the crowd every time Lions player Charlie Cameron kicks a goal. The song was chosen by Cameron to be played in reference to his country roots.[17]
Lyrics
Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert
April 12, 1971
March 2014
"Country Roads"
May 21, 2001
3:22
XPLO Music
- Jim Binapfl
- John Lehmkuhl
- Mark Snijders
- Jack Buck