"Go Home" is a song by Stevie Wonder, released as the second single from his twentieth studio album, In Square Circle (1985). The song showcased the narrator's plea to a young woman to go home, though the girl tries to get the narrator to stay with her. In the US, the song peaked at #2 on the Billboard R&B chart and #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and, to date, is Wonder's last song to reach the US top ten on the Hot 100.[1] "Go Home" also topped both the Billboard dance chart and the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.[2][3]

"Go Home"
Single by Stevie Wonder
from the album In Square Circle
B-side"Instrumental"
ReleasedOctober 1985
Recorded1985
Genre
Length5:18 (album version)
4:18 (7" version)
9:22 (12" version)
LabelTamla
Songwriter(s)Stevie Wonder
Producer(s)Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder singles chronology
"That's What Friends Are For"
(1985)
"Go Home"
(1985)
"Overjoyed"
(1986)

Stevie performed this song as early as the May 7, 1983, episode of Saturday Night Live and nearly two years later at the 1985 Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, California, in a synthesizer jam with other contemporaries Howard Jones, Herbie Hancock, and Thomas Dolby.[4] Like "Part-Time Lover," the song was released with a special 12-inch version, which demonstrated Wonder's ability to reverse-sample.

Billboard called it a "darker follow up" to "Part-Time Lover" that is "more subtle and affecting."[5]

Personnel

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  • Stevie Wonder – lead vocal, background vocal, synthesizers, drums, vocoder
  • Bob Malach – saxophone
  • Larry Gittens - trumpet

Charts

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Cover versions

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Instrumental group Groovopolis, led by guitarist Chris Cortez, covered the song for their self-titled first and only album in 2002.[10][11]

Steve Khan: Backlog 2017

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 636.
  2. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Hot Dance/Disco: 1974-2003. Record Research. p. 283.
  3. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 263.
  4. ^ YouTube: "Synthesizer Medley at the 1985 Grammys"
  5. ^ "Reviews". Billboard. November 16, 1985. p. 67. Retrieved 2022-08-02.
  6. ^ "Top 100 Singles". Top100singles.net. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
  7. ^ Pennanen, Timo (2021). "Stevie Wonder". Sisältää hitin - 2. laitos Levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla 1.1.1960–30.6.2021 (PDF) (in Finnish). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. p. 284. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  8. ^ "Cash Box Top 100 Singles – Week ending February 8, 1986". Cash Box Magazine. 8 February 1986. Archived from the original on 2 October 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  9. ^ "Top 100 Hits of 1986/Top 100 Songs of 1986". Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  10. ^ "Groovopolis overview". Allmusic.com.
  11. ^ "Jazz Improv". ChrisCortez.net. Archived from the original on 2010-05-26. Retrieved 2010-06-30.