"I'll Take You There" | ||||
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![]() Belgian single release | ||||
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 | ||||
![]() Side A of US single 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".
But it's still hard to hear it as anything other than a gospel song — one of the purest and most direct that ever went to #1 in America.