Eddie Money – ‘Take Me Home Tonight’
- Writers: M. Leeson and P. Vale
- Producers: Richie Zito and Eddie Money
- Recorded: Spring 1986 at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California
- Released: Fall 1986
- Players:
Eddie Money — vocals
Richie Zito — guitar, keyboards
Randy Jackson — bass
Richard Page — guitar, vocals
Pat Mastelotto — drums
Ronnie Spector — vocals - Album: Can’t Hold Back (Columbia, 1986)
- Also On:
Sound Of Money: Greatest Hits (Columbia, 1989)
Shakin’ With The Money Man (CMC International, 1997)
Greatest Hits Live (BMG Special, 1998)
The Best Of Eddie Money(Columbia/Legacy, 2001)
The Essential Eddie Money (Columbia, 2003)
Then And Now (Sanctuary, 2003) - “Take Me Home Tonight” was Eddie Money‘s biggest hit single, peaking at Number Four on the pop chart.
- The song was originally intended to be a duet between Money and Martha Davis from the band the Motels.
- Money was not fond of the song when he heard it, and he thought it was too lightweight and pop. To give the song some muscle, he recruited ’60s girl group leader Ronnie Spector to add the “Be my little baby” line, which was inspired by her 1963 hit “Be My Baby” with her group the Ronettes. Money said at the time: “I called Ronnie and said, ‘Baby, you got to come in and save me from this piece of s*** song.’ I had to have something on there I could like about it.”
The song’s success pushed the Can’t Hold Back album — Money’s first release after a stint in drug rehab — to Number 20 on the Billboard 200. The album also sold more than a million copies.