I'll Take You There
Encyclopedia
"I'll Take You There" is a number-one single written and produced by Al Bell
and performed by soul
/gospel
family band The Staple Singers
, released on Stax Records
in February 1972 (see 1972 in music
). The song spent a total of fifteen weeks on the charts and reached number one on the Hot 100.
, "I'll Take You There" features lead singer Mavis Staples
inviting her listeners to seek heaven
. The song is "almost completely a call-and-response chorus"[], with the introduction being lifted from a Jamaican instrumental reggae
tune titled "The Liquidator". In fact, the entire song, written in the key of C, contains but two chords, C and F. A large portion of the song is set aside for Mavis' sisters Cleotha and Yvonne and their father "Pops" to seemingly perform solos on their respective instruments. In actuality, these solos (and all music in the song) were recorded by the famed Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section
. When Mavis Staples says "Daddy, now, Daddy, Daddy" (referring to "Pop's" guitar solo), it is actually Eddie Hinton
who performs the solo on record. Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section
bass player David Hood
performs the song's famed bass line. Terry Manning
added harmonica and lead electric guitar. Roger Hawkins played drums, Barry Beckett was on electric piano, and Jimmy Johnson and Raymond banks contributed guitar parts. The Memphis Horns played the signature soul horn lines.
Rolling Stone
editor David Fricke
described this song as the "epitome of the Muscle Shoals Sound". It was recorded in Muscle Shoals, AL at the famous Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, and overdubbed and mixed at Ardent Studios in Memphis by Engineer Terry Manning
.
Bolstered by a "feel-good" vibe, "I'll Take You There" peaked at number-one on the Billboard R&B Singles chart
for four weeks May 1972. In June, "I'll Take You There" reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100
for one week. The song, ranked #276 on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, remains the most successful and recognizable single of the Staples' half-century-long career.
The song was used in the 1986 film Children of a Lesser God
.
The song was also used from 1997–1999 in commercials for the Chevrolet Malibu
.
Mavis Staples performed the song at the closing of comedian/commentators Jon Stewart
and Stephen Colbert
's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear accompanied by Jeff Tweedy
and The Roots
, and joined on stage by the other performers in the show.
Al Bell
Al Bell is an American record producer, songwriter, and record executive. Bell is best known as one of the key figures behind and a co-owner of Memphis, Tennessee-based Stax Records during the latter half of the label's nineteen-year existence...
and performed by soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
/gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
family band The Staple Singers
The Staple Singers
The Staple Singers were an American gospel, soul, and R&B singing group. Roebuck "Pops" Staples , the patriarch of the family, formed the group with his children Cleotha , Pervis , Yvonne , and Mavis...
, released on Stax Records
Stax Records
Stax Records is an American record label, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee.Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the name Stax Records was adopted in 1961. The label was a major factor in the creation of the Southern soul and Memphis soul music styles, also releasing gospel, funk, jazz, and...
in February 1972 (see 1972 in music
1972 in music
-Events:*January 17 – Highway 51 South in Memphis, Tennessee is renamed "Elvis Presley Boulevard"*January 20 – The début of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon at The Dome, Brighton, is halted by technical difficulties,...
). The song spent a total of fifteen weeks on the charts and reached number one on the Hot 100.
History
Included on the group's 1972 album Be Altitude: Respect YourselfBe Altitude: Respect Yourself
-Reception:It includes the hit songs "I'll Take You There" and "Respect Yourself". The musicians are the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and the Memphis Horns, augmented by overdubbed guitar, Moog synthesizer, Mellotron and harmonica by Terry Manning.-Track listing:...
, "I'll Take You There" features lead singer Mavis Staples
Mavis Staples
Mavis Staples is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer, actress and civil rights activist who recorded with The Staple Singers, her family's band.-Biography:...
inviting her listeners to seek heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
. The song is "almost completely a call-and-response chorus"[], with the introduction being lifted from a Jamaican instrumental reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
tune titled "The Liquidator". In fact, the entire song, written in the key of C, contains but two chords, C and F. A large portion of the song is set aside for Mavis' sisters Cleotha and Yvonne and their father "Pops" to seemingly perform solos on their respective instruments. In actuality, these solos (and all music in the song) were recorded by the famed Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section
Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section
The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, also known as The Swampers, are a group of American soul, R&B, and country studio musicians based in the town of Muscle Shoals, Alabama...
. When Mavis Staples says "Daddy, now, Daddy, Daddy" (referring to "Pop's" guitar solo), it is actually Eddie Hinton
Eddie Hinton
Eddie Hinton was an American songwriter and session musician best known for his work with soul music and R&B singers...
who performs the solo on record. Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section
Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section
The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, also known as The Swampers, are a group of American soul, R&B, and country studio musicians based in the town of Muscle Shoals, Alabama...
bass player David Hood
David Hood
David Hood , is a bassist from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He also plays the trombone and is a member of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame....
performs the song's famed bass line. Terry Manning
Terry Manning
Terry Manning is a music producer, songwriter, photographer and recording engineer known for work in rock, rhythm and blues, and pop music genres....
added harmonica and lead electric guitar. Roger Hawkins played drums, Barry Beckett was on electric piano, and Jimmy Johnson and Raymond banks contributed guitar parts. The Memphis Horns played the signature soul horn lines.
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
editor David Fricke
David Fricke
David Fricke is a senior editor at Rolling Stone magazine, where he writes predominantly on rock music. In the 1990s, he was managing editor before stepping down.-Background:David Fricke is a graduate of Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania...
described this song as the "epitome of the Muscle Shoals Sound". It was recorded in Muscle Shoals, AL at the famous Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, and overdubbed and mixed at Ardent Studios in Memphis by Engineer Terry Manning
Terry Manning
Terry Manning is a music producer, songwriter, photographer and recording engineer known for work in rock, rhythm and blues, and pop music genres....
.
Bolstered by a "feel-good" vibe, "I'll Take You There" peaked at number-one on the Billboard R&B Singles chart
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...
for four weeks May 1972. In June, "I'll Take You There" reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
for one week. The song, ranked #276 on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, remains the most successful and recognizable single of the Staples' half-century-long career.
The song was used in the 1986 film Children of a Lesser God
Children of a Lesser God
Children of a Lesser God is a 1986 American romantic drama film directed by Randa Haines and written by Hesper Anderson and Mark Medoff. An adaptation of Medoff's Tony Award-winning stage play of the same name, the film stars William Hurt and Marlee Matlin as two employees at a school for the deaf:...
.
The song was also used from 1997–1999 in commercials for the Chevrolet Malibu
Chevrolet Malibu
Malibus and all other Chevelles were completely restyled for 1968 with semi-fastback rooflines on two-door hardtops and wheelbases split to on two-door models and 118 for four-door sedans and station wagons. Engine offerings included a new V8 rated at that replaced the V8 that had served as the...
.
Mavis Staples performed the song at the closing of comedian/commentators Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian...
and Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.Colbert originally studied to be an...
's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear accompanied by Jeff Tweedy
Jeff Tweedy
Jeffrey Scot "Jeff" Tweedy is an American songwriter, musician and leader of the band Wilco. Tweedy joined rockabilly band The Plebes with high school friend Jay Farrar in the early 1980s, but Tweedy's musical interests caused one of Farrar's brothers to quit...
and The Roots
The Roots
The Roots is an American hip hop/neo soul band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are famed for beginning with a jazzy, eclectic approach to hip hop which still includes live instrumentals...
, and joined on stage by the other performers in the show.
Charts
General Public version| End of year chart (1994) | Position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 95 |
Notable remakes
- In 1972, the Jamaican band The Deltones released a reggae version of the song.
- In 1988, Big Daddy KaneBig Daddy KaneAntonio Hardy better known by his stage name Big Daddy Kane, is an American rapper who started his career in 1986 as a member of the rap group the Juice Crew. He is widely considered to be one of the most influential and skilled MC's in Hip Hop...
remade the song on his Long Live the KaneLong Live the KaneLong Live the Kane is the debut album by MC Big Daddy Kane, released by Cold Chillin' Records in 1988. It was produced by Marley Marl and established both him and Kane as premier artists during hip hop's golden age...
album. - In 1992 American recording artist Britney SpearsBritney SpearsBritney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
sang the song on the Mickey Mouse ClubMickey Mouse ClubThe Mickey Mouse Club is an American variety television show that began in 1955, produced by Walt Disney Productions and televised by the ABC, featuring a regular but ever-changing cast of teenage performers. The Mickey Mouse Club was created by Walt Disney...
on Disney ChannelDisney ChannelDisney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
alongside co-star Justin TimberlakeJustin TimberlakeJustin Randall Timberlake is an American pop musician and actor. He achieved early fame when he appeared as a contestant on Star Search, and went on to star in the Disney Channel television series The New Mickey Mouse Club, where he met future bandmate JC Chasez...
. - In 1996, SWVSWVSisters with Voices, better known as SWV, is an American female R&B trio from New York. Formed in 1990 as a gospel group, SWV became one of the most successful R&B groups of the 1990s. They had a series of hits, including "Weak", "Right Here/Human Nature", "I'm So Into You", and "You're the One"....
covered "I'll Take You There" on the "NBA at 50: A Musical Celebration" album. - "I'll Take You There" returned to number one on the R&B chart in 1991 when it was covered by BeBe & CeCe WinansBeBe & CeCe WinansBeBe & CeCe Winans are an American Gospel music brother and sister duo. BeBe and CeCe Winans are the seventh and eighth of "Mom" and "Pop" Winans' ten children, most of whom have had successful Gospel music careers.-Musical career:...
, with Mavis Staples featured as a guest artist on the track. The single also made #90 on the Hot 100. - In 1994, the British band General PublicGeneral PublicGeneral Public were a band formed by The Beat vocalists, Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger, and which included former members of Dexy's Midnight Runners, The Specials and The Clash...
released a cover of "I'll Take You There" featured in the Lara Flynn BoyleLara Flynn BoyleLara Flynn Boyle is an American film and television actress best known for her performances as Laura Palmer's best friend Donna Hayward in Twin Peaks and Assistant District Attorney Helen Gamble in The Practice...
/Stephen BaldwinStephen BaldwinStephen Andrew Baldwin is an American actor, director, producer and author. One of the Baldwin brothers, he is known for his roles as William F. Cody in the western show The Young Riders and as Stuart in the movie Threesome...
/Josh Charles film ThreesomeThreesome (film)Threesome is a 1994 film, written and directed by Andrew Fleming. The film is an autobiographical comedy mixed in with some social commentary, and is based on the college memories of Fleming. It was given an R rating by the Motion Picture Association of America...
. It was a surprise American hit, peaking at #22 on the Hot 100. This version features an added toastedToastingToasting, chatting, or deejaying is the act of talking or chanting, usually in a monotone melody, over a rhythm or beat by a deejay. The lyrics can be either improvised or pre-written. Toasting has been used in various African traditions, such as griots chanting over a drum beat, as well as in...
verse specific to this version of the song. - Female rap trio Salt-N-PepaSalt-N-PepaSalt-N-Pepa is an American hip hop trio from Queens and Brooklyn, New York, that was formed in 1985. The group, consisting of Cheryl "Salt" Renee James, Sandra "Pepa" Denton, and Deidra "DJ Spinderella" Roper, was one of the first all-female rap crews....
sampled "I'll Take You There" in their 1991 hit "Let's Talk About SexLet's Talk About Sex"Let's Talk About Sex" is the name of a hit song released by the American hip-hop trio Salt-n-Pepa. It was released as a single from their Blacks' Magic album in the year 1991, and achieved a great success in many countries, including Australia, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland where it was a...
." - Female pop and R&B trio Destiny's ChildDestiny's ChildDestiny's Child was an American R&B girl group whose final line-up comprised lead singer Beyoncé Knowles alongside Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams. Formed in 1997 in Houston, Texas, Destiny's Child members began their musical endeavors in their pre-teens under the name Girl's Tyme...
Remade the song for Live 8 in Philadelphia. - R&B singer Kelly PriceKelly PriceKelly Price is an American R&B and soul singer, formerly on the Def Soul label.-Life and music career:Kelly Cherelle Price was born in Queens, New York. She was first discovered by Mariah Carey in February 1992 and subsequently introduced to Sony Columbia's then CEO Tommy Mottola...
's cover was featured on the soundtrack to Tyler PerryTyler PerryTyler Perry is an American actor, director, playwright, entrepreneur, screenwriter, producer, author, and songwriter. Perry wrote and produced many stage plays during the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2005, he released his first film, Diary of a Mad Black Woman...
's Meet the BrownsMeet the Browns (film)Meet the Browns is a 2008 romantic comedy-drama film released by Lionsgate on March 21, 2008. The film was based on the play of the same name by Tyler Perry.-Plot:...
. - American gospel singer Karen Clark SheardKaren Clark SheardKaren Clark-Sheard is an American gospel four-time Grammy Award winning singer, musician, and songwriter. The youngest daughter of pioneering gospel choral director Mattie Moss Clark, Sheard began her career as a member of the Grammy-Award winning, gospel legendary female group, The Clark Sisters...
recorded a live cover of the song. - The American rock band Sammy Hagar and the Waboritas recorded a cover of the song "I'll Take You There" on his 2006 album Livin' It Up!, albeit with the incorrect title, "Let Me Take You There".
- The American New Wave band BlondieBlondie (band)Blondie is an American rock band, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American New Wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s...
performed this song as a medley with their number one single "The Tide is HighThe Tide Is High"The Tide Is High" is a 1967 song written by John Holt and originally performed by The Paragons with John Holt as lead singer. The song went mainly unnoticed in the rest of the world until it was rediscovered in 1980 when it became a US/UK number 1 hit for the band Blondie...
" on their 2009 tour "Call Me Invincible." - In 2010, British RapRapRap may refer to:*Rapping, performance in which rhyming lyrics are used, with or without musical accompaniment ; while an MC performs spoken verses in time to a beat/ melody**Hip hop subculture**Hip hop music...
artist Dizzee RascalDizzee RascalDylan Kwabena Mills , better known by his stage name Dizzee Rascal, is a Ghanaian British rapper, songwriter and record producer. His music is a blend of garage, hip hop, grime, ragga, pop and electronic music, with eclectic samples and more exotic styles...
sampled the track on his single Dirtee DiscoDirtee Disco"Dirtee Disco" is the fifth single from Ghanaian British rapper Dizzee Rascal's fourth studio album Tongue n' Cheek, although the song only appears in the deluxe edition of the album. It features background vocals from former One True Voice member Daniel Pearce and samples The Staple Singers' 1972...
. - Robert Randolph & the Family BandRobert Randolph & the Family BandRobert Randolph and the Family Band is a multicultural American funk and soul band led by pedal steel guitarist Robert Randolph. Other band members include drummer Marcus Randolph, bass guitarist Danyel Morgan, vocalist Lenesha Randolph, keyboardist and guitarist Brett Andrew Haas, and one of...
released a cover of the song on their Live in Concert album in October 2011. Blues artist Susan TedeschiSusan TedeschiSusan Tedeschi is an American blues and soul musician, who has received multiple Grammy Award nominations, and is well-known for her singing voice, guitar playing, stage presence, and marriage to blues guitarist Derek Trucks...
guests on vocals.
See also
- List of number-one R&B singles of 1972 (U.S.)
- List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 1972 (U.S.)
- List of number-one R&B singles of 1991 (U.S.)
- Number-one dance hits of 1994 (USA)Number-one dance hits of 1994 (USA)These are the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play number one hits of 1994.-See also:*1994 in music*List of number-one dance hits *List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance chart...