1. Background
    Composition  Commercial performance 

2. Reception in West Virginia

3. Personnel

4. Charts

5. Certifications

6. Cover versions
    Hermes House Band version  Olivia Newton-John versions  Fallout 76 version 

7. References

8. External links

• Bill Danoff
• Taffy Nivert
• John Denver

• Milton Okun
• Susan Ruskin

"Take Me Home, Country Roads", also known as "Take Me Home" or "Country Roads", is a song written by Bill Danoff, Taffy Nivert, and John Denver about the state of West Virginia. It was released as a single performed by Denver on April 12, 1971, peaking at number 2 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.{{Certification Cite Ref |artist=John Denver |title=Take Me Home, Country Road |region=United States |type=single }} The song became one of John Denver's most popular and beloved songs. It has continued to sell, with over 1.5 million digital copies sold in the United States.^[2] It is considered to be Denver's signature song.^[3]

The song has a prominent status as an iconic symbol of West Virginia, which it describes as "almost Heaven". In March 2014, it became one of the four official state anthems of West Virginia.

Background

Composition

Danoff and his then-wife, Mary ("Taffy") Nivert, wrote "I Guess He'd Rather Be in Colorado" and "Take Me Home, Country Roads", both of which were hits for John Denver. Danoff (from Springfield, Massachusetts) has stated he had never been to West Virginia before co-writing the song.^[4] Inspiration for the song had come while driving to a family reunion of Nivert's relatives along Clopper Road^[5] in nearby Maryland. According to a radio interview with Nivert, the road is close to her native Washington, D.C., in nearby Montgomery County, Maryland, where Denver often visited. That road – Clopper Road – still exists today, but the landscape has changed drastically from the countryside scenery that once surrounded it.^[6] To pass the time en route, Danoff had made up a ballad about the little winding roads they were taking. He had even briefly considered using "Massachusetts" rather than "West Virginia" as both four-syllable state names would have fit the song's meter.

According to Danoff, the part of the song that is quintessential West Virginia, is the verse referring to the radio. Danoff says that comes directly from his childhood in the 1950s listening to the program Saturday Night Jamboree on Wheeling’s WWVA from his home in Springfield, Massachusetts.^[7]

Danoff had some other West Virginia associations to draw from as well. He became friends with actor Chris Sarandon, a Beckley native who was once married to actress Susan Sarandon, as well as a group of hippies from a West Virginia commune who used to sit in the front row of the little clubs in which his band used to play.^[8]

“They brought their dogs and were a very colorful group of folks, but that is how West Virginia began creeping into the song,” Danoff said. “I didn’t want to write about Massachusetts because I didn’t think the word was musical. And the Bee Gees, of course, had a hit record called Massachusetts, but what did I know?”^[9]

Starting December 22, 1970, John Denver was heading the bill at The Cellar Door, a Washington, D.C. club. Danoff and Nivert opened for him as a duo named Fat City. After the Tuesday post-Christmas re-opening night (Cellar Door engagements ran from Tuesday to Sunday and this booking was for two weeks,) the three headed back to their place for an impromptu jam. On the way, Denver's left thumb was broken in an automobile accident. He was taken to the hospital, where a splint was applied. By the time they got back to the house, he was, in his own words, "wired, you know."{{cn|date=January 2019}}

Danoff and Nivert then told him about the song that they had been working on for about a month. Originally, Danoff and Nivert had planned to sell the song to popular country singer Johnny Cash, but when Denver heard the song and decided he had to have it, the duo who wrote the original lyrics decided not to make the sale.{{cn|date=January 2019}}

They sang the song for Denver and as he recalled, "I flipped." The three stayed up until 6:00 a.m., changing words and moving lines around.^[10]

The bridge to the song was still missing, so the three of them, began finishing the song in the living room of Danoff’s apartment. Taffy got out an encyclopedia to learn a little more about West Virginia, and the first thing that came up was the Rhododendron, the state flower, so she kept trying to work the word Rhododendron into the song. Rhododendron was actually the title that Taffy had written down on the lyric sheet, which they later sent to ASCAP.^[11]

The geographical features named in the first verse of the lyrics - Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River - which are more prominent in the state of Virginia than in West Virginia, can be found in Jefferson County, West Virginia.^[12]

When they finished, Denver announced that the song had to go on his next album.^[13]

The song was premiered December 30, 1970, during an encore of Denver's set, with the singers reading the words from a folded piece of paper. This resulted in a five-minute ovation, one of the longest in Cellar Door history.^[14] They recorded it in New York City in January 1971.

Commercial performance

"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 that 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.{{Certification Cite Ref |region=United States|artist=John Denver |format=single|title=Take Me Home, Country Road }} The song continued to sell in the digital era. As of January 2019, the song has also sold an additional 1,515,000 downloads since it became available digitally.^[2]

Reception in West Virginia

"Take Me Home, Country Roads" received an enthusiastic response from West Virginians. The song is the theme song of West Virginia University and it has been performed during every home football pregame show since 1972.

On September 6, 1980, at the invitation of West Virginia Governor Jay Rockefeller, songwriters Bill Danoff, Taffy Nivert, and John 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.^[15]

The song is played for other athletic events and university functions, including after football games, for which the fans are encouraged to stay in the stands and sing the song along with the team.^[16]

This song was played at the funeral memorial for West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd at the state capitol in Charleston on July 2, 2010.^[17]

The popularity of the song has 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".^[18] Governor Earl Ray Tomblin signed the resolution into law on March 8, 2014.^[19]

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.”^[20]

The Mountain State Brewing Company based in Thomas, West Virginia, produces an amber ale called "Almost Heaven," which it says is "named after John Denver's ode to West Virginia, Country Roads".^[21]

Personnel

• John Denver – vocals, 6 & 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

Certifications

Cover versions

Hermes House Band version

• Bill Danoff
• Taffy Nivert
• John Denver

• Jim Binapfl
• John Lehmkuhl
• Mark Snijders
• Jack Buck

In 2001, the song was covered by Dutch pop band Hermes House Band and released as "Country Roads". 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. The band performed the song live on Top of the Pops.{{citation needed|date=May 2018}}

Olivia Newton-John versions

• Olivia Newton-John recorded a cover version in 1973 that reached the top 10 in Japan and the number 15 in the UK, but only reached No. 119 in the United States on the Billboard Hot 100.{{Citation needed|date=July 2018}}

Fallout 76 version

A cover version of the song, a collaboration between Copilot Music and Sound and the vocal group [https://en-gb.facebook.com/Spankdoowop/ Spank], was commissioned for and featured in both the teaser and full E3 2018 trailers for the 2018 video game, Fallout 76, whose plot events are set in West Virginia.^[27] Released as an iTunes-only single on July 4, 2018, the song reached #1 on the iTunes singles chart.^[28] It debuted at #41 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart that week and at #21 on Billboard's Country Digital Songs the following week.^[28] 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.^[29] 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.^[30]

References

External links

• {{MetroLyrics song|john-denver|take-me-home-country-roads}}

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