"Take Me Home" is a song recorded by American singer and actress Cher for her 1979 fifteenth studio album of the same name. A disco song, it was conceived after Cher was recommended to venture into said genre, after the commercial failure of her previous albums. The lyrics center around the request of a woman to be taken home by her lover. It was released as the lead single from the Take Me Home album in January 1979 through Casablanca Records, pressed as a 12-inch single.

Music critics gave positive reviews of "Take Me Home", who highlighted its sound and melody. The single fared well in the United States charts, peaking at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and entering three of its component charts. In Oceania, it entered the singles chart of New Zealand at number 49. It was also a hit in Canada, reaching the top-ten of the singles chart.

In 2001, English singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor covered the song for her debut studio album Read My Lips. It served as her debut solo single after being signed by Polydor Records. Her version contains new lyrics and a disco-tinged instrumental, and elicited a mostly positive response from critics; it also enjoyed commercial success. However, Cher was reportedly critical of this version, finding its lyrics too overtly sexual.

Background and composition

After releasing the studio albums Stars (1975), I'd Rather Believe in You (1976), Cherished and Two the Hard Way (1977), which became commercial failures, Cher went to the headquarters of Casablanca Records, in order to start recording for a new full-length record. She was hoping to record rock and roll-tinged music, though she was quickly advised by Neil Bogart to delve into disco music before recording with a genre that, according to him, she was not very good at. She was reluctant to take his advice, as she regarded disco as a "superficial" genre and did not believe it was "serious music". However, she took his advice, and started working with Bob Esty, who arranged and produced records for Donna Summer and Barbra Streisand. Esty was skeptical of Cher's decision to record disco music, although he changed his mind after he began recording with her. The first song he played her was a demo of "Take Me Home", which Cher said she liked.

"Take Me Home" is a disco song running at a length of six minutes and forty-five seconds (6:45).[3] Its lyrics see Cher asking her partner to "take her home", which is an indirect way of expressing her desire to have sexual intercourse.[2] For the book The Persistence of Sentiment: Display and Feeling in Popular Music of the 1970s, Mitchell Morris commented on the song: "Ostensibly a plea to be chosen, the song relies on the musical force of the arrangement combined with Cher's vocal presence to turn this plea into an irresistible demand, the auditory equivalent of the showgirl's direct gaze.

Release and reception[edit]
"Take Me Home" was released in the United States as a 12-inch single at a 33 ⅓ rpm by Casablanca Records, containing the original version of "Take Me Home" and B-side "Wasn't It Good". Therefore, it served as the album's lead single.[5] Promotional versions were also sent to radio stations in the United States with a different coloring on the vinyl, although with the same track listing.[6] In Germany and France, the vinyl was pressed by Philips and branded as a "Super Single" and substituted "Wasn't It Good" with "My Song (Far Too Gone)".[7][8] Some international pressings' vinyl sleeves had the same image as that of its parent album printed, featuring Cher dressed in a "gilded Viking warrior get-up", a winged bikini bottom, wings and a gold scabbard attached to her hip.[2] UGO Networks' K. Thor Jensen considered the sleeve to be her "bad taste highwater mark", and named her outfit "Flash Gordon-esque".[9] In the United Kingdom, when "Wasn't It Good" was issued as a vinyl single, "Take Me Home" served as its B-side.

The staff of Billboard magazine picked it as a recommended disco single and wrote: "[The song] is an upbeat, cleanly produced sound with a light, easy melody. It's sure to catch the ears of the disco set."[11] A reviewer for AllMusic singled out the track from its parent album, feeling it was one of its "track picks".[12] Having spent in total 20 weeks on the US Billboard Hot 100, "Take Me Home" peaked at number eight, thus making it Cher's first top 10 single since 1974's "Dark Lady". It also entered its component charts of Adult Contemporary, Hot Dance Club Play (now the Hot Dance Club Songs) and Hot Soul Singles (now Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs) charts, respectively, at numbers 19, two and 21.[13] It was certified Gold in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on May 3, 1979.[14] Billboard ran an article on Cher's biggest hits on the Hot 100, where "Take Me Home" was listed as the eleventh.[15] The single was a hit in Canada, where it reached the top 10 on the charts.[16] In New Zealand it reached number 49 and stayed for two weeks before leaving the chart.

Live performances

Cher performed the song on her Take Me Home Tour wearing a shiny silver wig along with a matching silver sequin dress. She performed the song for the first time in twenty years on her concerts from her Do You Believe? Tour, which ran from 1999 to 2000, wearing an almost identical silver sequined outfit she wore during the Take Me Home tour.[18] During her Living Proof: The Farewell Tour (2002–05), she performed it in a similar fashion, changing the wig and shirt-and-pants set's color to a sparkly red. At her residence in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace, in the show Cher at the Colosseum, Cher performed the song in a similar costume in turquoise color. Cher also performed the song in her Classic Cher shows with the turquoise costume from Caesars Palace.