Take Me Home, Country Roads

Composition

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."

To Danoff, the lyric "the 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.

Danoff was influenced by friend and West Virginian actor Chris Sarandon and members of a West Virginia commune who attended Danoff's performances. 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."

Starting on December 22, 1970, Denver was heading the New Year's bill at The Cellar Door in Washington, D.C., 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."

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. 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. The three stayed up until 6:00 a.m., changing words and moving lines around.

When they finished, on the morning of Wednesday, December 30, 1970, Denver announced that the song had to go on his next album. 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. The next day was Denver's 27th birthday. They recorded it in New York City in January 1971.

"Take Me Home, Country Roads" is written in the key of A major with a tempo of 82 beats per minute.

Commercial performance and legacy

"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. The single reached number 1 on the Record World Pop Singles Chart and the Cash Box Top 100, and number 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100, topped only by "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" by The Bee Gees.

On August 18, 1971, the song was certified Gold by the RIAA for a million copies shipped. It continued to sell in the digital era. As of January 2020, the song has also sold 1,800,000 downloads since it became available digitally.

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.

The song has since become an anthem of the Brisbane Lions, a professional Australian rules football club 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.

The song was interpolated in "Lonely Road" by Machine Gun Kelly and Jelly Roll in 2024. It reached number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated August 10, 2024, giving Denver his first top 40 appearance as a songwriter since the same song's appearance in the medley "Forever Country" by Artists of Then, Now & Forever peaked at number 21 in 2016.

During Super Bowl LIX, a Rocket Mortgage commercial entitled "Own the Dream" used the song, and it created a history-making moment by transitioning into a live, stadium-wide sing-along of the John Denver song that many fans joined in on. The unprecedented event, where the ad's narrative bled into the real-life stadium audience's reaction, was praised for creating a powerful moment of unity among the fans in the Caesars Superdome.

The song has been an anthem for Manchester United's supporters across many decades, with these adapted lyrics: “Take me home, United Road, to the place, I belong. To Old Trafford, to see United, take me home, United Road!”. It was also chosen by captain Bruno Fernandes to play shortly before kick-offs at Old Trafford.

Reception in West Virginia

"Take Me Home, Country Roads" received an enthusiastic response from West Virginians. On November 1, 2017, the West Virginia Tourism Office announced it had obtained the rights to use "Take Me Home, Country Roads" in its marketing efforts. Country Roads' has become synonymous with West Virginia all over the world", said West Virginia Tourism Commissioner Chelsea Ruby. "It highlights everything we love about our state: scenic beauty, majestic mountains, a timeless way of life, and most of all, the warmth of a place that feels like home whether you've lived here forever or are just coming to visit." The opening phrase of the song, "Almost heaven", became a primary tourism office slogan.

The song is the theme song of West Virginia University, and it has been performed during every home football pregame show since 1972. The song is also played after every home victory and fans are encouraged to stay in the stands and sing along with the team. It is also played for other athletic events and university functions. On September 6, 1980, at the invitation of West Virginia Governor Jay Rockefeller, songwriters Danoff, Nivert, and Denver performed the song during pregame festivities to a sold-out crowd of Mountaineer fans. This performance marked the dedication of the current West Virginia University Mountaineer Field and the first game for head coach Don Nehlen.

The popularity of the song inspired resolutions in the West Virginia Legislature to adopt "Take Me Home, Country Roads" as an official state song. On March 7, 2014, the West Virginia Legislature approved a resolution to make "Take Me Home, Country Roads" an official state song of West Virginia, alongside three other pieces: "West Virginia Hills", "This Is My West Virginia", and "West Virginia, My Home Sweet Home". The next day, governor Earl Ray Tomblin signed the resolution into law.

The song was played at the funeral for West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd at the state capitol in Charleston, West Virginia, on July 2, 2010.

Personnel

• John Denver – vocals, 6- and 12-string acoustic guitar
• Bill Danoff – backing vocals
• Taffy Nivert – backing vocals
• Eric Weissberg – banjo, steel guitar
• Mike Taylor – acoustic guitar
• Richard Kniss – double bass
• Gary Chester – drums, percussion

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Cover versions

Olivia Newton-John version

Olivia Newton-John released a cover version in January 1973 that reached number 6 in Japan and number 15 in the UK. It was the lead single from her third studio album, Let Me Be There. This version, as well as the song itself, features prominently in the Japanese animated film, Whisper of the Heart.

Charts

Toots and the Maytals version

Jamaican reggae group Toots and the Maytals recorded a cover version for their 1974 album In The Dark. The lyrics are altered slightly to refer to the group's home country of Jamaica with specific references to the island's West end.

Yōko Honna version

• Taffy Nivert
• John Denver
• Mamiko Suzuki
• Hayao Miyazaki (complement) | B-side = "The Window in Half"

Japanese voice actress Yōko Honna recorded a cover version for the 1995 film Whisper of the Heart simply titled Country Road with new lyrics by Mamiko Suzuki, the daughter of Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki and screenwriter Hayao Miyazaki. The Olivia Newton-John version of the song also plays during the film's opening credits.

Hermes House Band version

• Taffy Nivert
• John Denver
• John Lehmkuhl
• Mark Snijders
• Jack Buck

Dutch pop band Hermes House Band covered the song and released it as "Country Roads". This version was first released in Germany on May 21, 2001, and was issued in the United Kingdom on December 3, 2001, where it was a contender for the 2001 Christmas number-one single. This version was a chart success in Europe, reaching number one in Scotland, number two in Germany and Ireland, and the top 10 in Austria, Denmark, and the United Kingdom.

Track listings

Charts

Certifications

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Forever Country version

The song found further chart success as part of the "Forever Country" medley and video, created in 2016 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Country Music Association Awards.

''Fallout 76'' version

A cover version of the song, a collaboration between Copilot Music and Sound and the vocal group Spank, was commissioned for and featured in both the teaser and full E3 2018 trailers for the 2018 video game Fallout 76, with its plot events set in West Virginia. Released as an iTunes-only single on July 4, 2018, the song reached No. 1 on the iTunes singles chart. It debuted at No. 41 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart that week and at No. 21 on Billboards Country Digital Songs the following week. The official YouTube upload of the original John Denver recording, initially uploaded in 2013, would later edit its description in response to the song's use for the game. In Australia, a promotional Fallout 76 vinyl featuring the cover was included with the December 2018 issue of STACK Magazine exclusively from retailer JB Hi-Fi.

Charts

Lana Del Rey version

| B-side =

• folk
• Polydor
• Taffy Nivert
• John Denver

American singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey released a piano cover of the song on December 1, 2023.

Charts

References

References

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