"I'll Take You There" | ||||
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Single by the Staple Singers | ||||
from the album Be Altitude: Respect Yourself | ||||
B-side | "I'm Just Another Soldier" | |||
Released | February 1972 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 4:43 3:16 (7" version) | |||
Label | Stax | |||
Songwriter(s) | Al Bell | |||
Producer(s) | Al Bell | |||
The Staple Singers singles chronology | ||||
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Alternative release | ||||
"I'll Take You There" is a song written by Al Bell (using his real name Alvertis Isbell), and originally performed by soul/gospel family band the Staple Singers. The Staple Singers version, produced by Bell, was released on Stax Records in February 1972, and spent a total of 15 weeks on the charts and reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. By December 1972, it had sold 2 million units [4] and is ranked as the 19th biggest American hit of 1972. [5] It remains one of the best-selling gospel songs of all time.
The song was also a significant chart hit in two later cover versions. A 1991 cover version by BeBe & CeCe Winans, with Mavis Staples featured as a guest artist, made it to #1 on the R&B chart, and also reached #90 on the Hot 100. [6] In 1994, the British band General Public released a cover of "I'll Take You There" which peaked at #22 on the Hot 100. [7] Rap trio Salt-N-Pepa sampled "I'll Take You There" in their 1991 hit "Let's Talk About Sex".
Included on the group's 1972 album Be Altitude: Respect Yourself , "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 and bassline being lifted—uncredited—from "The Liquidator", a 1969 reggae hit written by Harry Johnson and performed by the Harry J Allstars. 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 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 the record. Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section bass player David Hood performs the song's bassline. Terry Manning added harmonica and lead electric guitar. Roger Hawkins played drums, Barry Beckett was on Wurlitzer electronic piano, and Jimmy Johnson and Raymond Banks contributed guitar parts. The horn and string parts were arranged by Detroit arranger Johnny Allen. The horns and strings were recorded at Artie Fields Recording Studios in Detroit Michigan.
Quite a few Staple Singers songs reference civil rights and social conditions. Many people interpret this song as describing an imagined world in which the civil rights movement has succeeded: "No more smilin' faces/lyin' to the races."
Rolling Stone editor David Fricke described this song as the "epitome of the Muscle Shoals Sound". It was recorded in Sheffield, 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 #1 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. [8] Billboard ranked it as the #19 song for 1972. [9] The song, ranked #276 on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time [10] and inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, remains the most successful and recognizable single of the Staples' half-century-long career.
Partial credits from Richard Buskin and Terry Manning. [11]
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom (BPI) [18] | Silver | 200,000‡ |
United States (RIAA) [19] | Gold | 500,000‡ |
United States 1972 physical sales | — | 1,500,000 [20] |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |
In 1991, the song returned to #1 on the R&B chart when it was covered by BeBe & CeCe Winans, with Mavis Staples featured as a guest artist on the track.[ citation needed ] The single also made #90 on the Hot 100. [21]
In 1994, the British band General Public released a cover of "I'll Take You There" featured in the film Threesome . It peaked at #22 on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 chart and #95 on its year-end chart. [22] It also peaked at #38 on the year-end chart of Canadian RPM Top Singles. [23] This version features an added toasted verse specific to this rendition.
In 2005, Sammy Hagar and The Waboritas released a cover titled "Let Me Take You There" as the first single from their 2006 album Livin' It Up!
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, and Mavis. Yvonne replaced her brother when he was drafted into the U.S. Army, and again in 1970. They are best known for their 1970s hits "Respect Yourself", "I'll Take You There", "If You're Ready ", and "Let's Do It Again". While the family name is Staples, the group used "Staple" commercially.
"Land of a Thousand Dances" is a song written and first recorded by American rhythm and blues singer Chris Kenner in 1962. It later became a bigger hit in versions by Cannibal & the Headhunters and Wilson Pickett. A version by Thee Midniters reached number 27 in Canada on March 22, 1965.
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The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section is a group of American session musicians based in the northern Alabama town of Muscle Shoals. One of the most prominent American studio house bands from the 1960s to the 1980s, these musicians, individually or as a group, have been associated with more than 500 recordings, including 75 gold and platinum hits. They were masters at creating a southern combination of R&B, soul and country music known as the "Muscle Shoals sound" to back up black artists, who were often in disbelief to learn that the studio musicians were white. Over the years from 1962 to 1969, there have been two successive groups under the name "Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section" and the common factor in the two was an association with Rick Hall at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals.
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Hot was a vocal trio based in Los Angeles, California, whose membership was Gwen Owens, Cathy Carson, and Juanita Curiel. The group had a million-selling hit single in 1977 entitled "Angel in Your Arms".
"Respect Yourself" is a song by American R&B/gospel group the Staple Singers. Released in late 1971 from their album Be Altitude: Respect Yourself, the song became a crossover hit. The Staple Singers' version peaked at No. 12 on the Hot 100, No. 2 on the Hot Soul Singles chart, and is one of the group's most recognizable hits. In 2002, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and in 2010 it was ranked #468 on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, moving down 4 spots from #464 in 2004.
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