In 1985, Phil Collins released “Take Me Home”. The song, written solely by Collins, is part of No Jacket Required, Collins’ third studio album.
“Take Me Home” became a Top 10 hit for Collins. The success of the song might be partly due to who joins him on the track: Sting and Peter Gabriel. Although they are credited as background vocals, their voices are featured prominently in the song.
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The usage of Gabriel isn’t that surprising, since both Gabriel and Collins were both in Genesis together. Collins never says why the two musicians joined him on the track. Interestingly, Helen Terry, who was part of Culture Club, also sings on “Take Me Home”. In addition to “Take Me Home”, Sting also sings on “Long Way To Go” and “I Don’t Wanna Know” from No Jacket Required.
No Jacket Required gave Phil Collins two Grammy Awards. The record also includes “Sussudio” and “One More Night”, both No. 1 singles, plus “Don’t Lose My Number”, a Top 5 hit.
“Take Me Home” might seem like a sweet song. However, it’s really about a man who is a patient in a mental hospital and wants to escape. “Take Me Home” says in part, “Seems so long I’ve been waiting / Still don’t know what for / There’s no point in escaping / I don’t worry anymore.”
Collins was inspired to write “Take Me Home” by the 1962 novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Other Versions of “Take Me Home” by Phil Collins
Collins kept “Take Me Home” in his setlist, often using it as an encore. But he isn’t the only artist to record “Take Me Home”. Ironically, hip-hop group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony sampled this song in their 2003 song, “Home”. Even more surprisingly, Collins appears in the video.
“Bone Thugs-N-Harmony called me up and said, ‘We’ve done a version of your song ‘Take Me Home’, and we’d like you to be in the video,’” Collins tells Rolling Stone. “I said, ‘No, I’m not in America.’ They said, ‘They can come wherever you are.’ I said, ‘Don’t make me say, ‘No, f**k off.’’ But then I heard the song, and I quite liked it, and they agreed to come to Geneva. How could I disappoint these guys? They were nice lads.”
In 2024, Little Big Town recorded this song with Sugarland for the band’s Greatest Hits record. They also performed it together at the CMA Awards that year.
Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images
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