Released February 1972 Length 4:43
3:16 (7" version) Writer(s) Al Bell | Genre R&B, funk, soul Label Stax | |
B-side "I'm Just Another Soldier" | ||
"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 number-one on the Billboard Hot 100.
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The song also was 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 number one on the R&B chart, and also made No. 90 on the Hot 100. In 1994, the British band General Public released a cover of "I'll Take You There" which peaked at No. 22 on Hot 100. As well, female rap trio Salt-N-Pepa sampled "I'll Take You There" in their 1991 hit "Let's Talk About Sex".
Original Staple Singers version
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",[1] with the introduction being lifted from "The Liquidator", a 1969 reggae hit 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 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 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.
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 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. Billboard ranked it as the No. 19 song for 1972. 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.
In other media
The song has been heavily featured in numerous films.
It was used in the 1986 film Children of a Lesser God. The song can be heard during the end credits for Barbershop (2002) and Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005). The song is also performed in the Australian musical film The Sapphires (2012).
Additionally, the song was also used for the 2010 film Secretariat.
The song was also used from 1997–1999 in commercials for the Chevrolet Malibu.
On October 30, 2010 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.
The song was also featured in the pilot episode of Netflix's Orange Is The New Black.