Who recorded it first

Take Me to the River

Not a Talking Heads original — Al Green cut it first, in 1974

Talking Heads’ 1978 single is the version most people carry around, and it is often taken for the source. It is a cover. “Take Me to the River” was written by Al Green with his guitarist Mabon “Teenie” Hodges, and Green recorded it first, for his album Al Green Explores Your Mind, released on Hi Records on 2 October 1974. Hi never issued Green’s recording as a single — it handed the song to labelmate Syl Johnson instead, whose 1975 version reached No. 48 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The record

Who recorded it first

First recording
Take Me to the River — Al Green
Released
2 October 1974, on Al Green Explores Your Mind
Label
Hi Records (produced by Willie Mitchell and Al Green)
Written by
Al Green and Mabon “Teenie” Hodges

Released As an album track on Al Green Explores Your Mind (Hi Records), released 2 October 1974 — produced by Willie Mitchell and Al Green at Royal Studios, Memphis. Hi Records did not release Green’s recording as a single.

Charted Did not chart as a single — it was never issued as one by Hi. The album it came from was Green’s fifth consecutive No. 1 on the Soul Albums chart and reached No. 15 on the Pop Albums chart. In 2004 the recording was ranked No. 117 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and it entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011.

Hear Al Green’s 1974 original recording, official audio. www.youtube.com · Uploaded by the official Al Green artist channel; the description states it is the official audio from Al Green Explores Your Mind (1974) and links Hi Records and Fat Possum. Its runtime of 3:45 matches the MusicBrainz recording on the 1974 album exactly (225,000 ms), ruling out a later re-recording. Then compare Talking Heads’ 1978 version from More Songs About Buildings and Food — the nervy, keyboard-washed reading that carried Al Green’s song into the US Top 30. www.youtube.com · Auto-generated upload on the “Talking Heads - Topic” channel, description line “Provided to YouTube by Warner Records”, phonogram line “℗ 1978 Sire Records, Inc.” — the correct label and year for the original master, not a reissue. Runtime 303s against the MusicBrainz track length of 303600ms (5:03.6) on the More Songs About Buildings and Food release (MBID c795eedd-2875-4c92-830e-3632f80ae58e); a 0.6s difference. Note this is the full album take, not the shorter 1978 single edit. A separate Topic upload of the same song (UFjnWUQ7Lvo) is the 2025 Rhino remaster and was rejected on that basis.

How the song travelled

Green’s recording opens the story on Al Green Explores Your Mind ↗, released by Hi Records in October 1974.

Hi passed the song to labelmate Syl Johnson ↗, whose 1975 single — also a Willie Mitchell production — reached No. 48 on the Hot 100 and No. 7 R&B.

Foghat, Levon Helm and Bryan Ferry all cut versions in 1976–78, before Talking Heads’ Sire single ↗ reached No. 26 in February 1979 and became the version everyone remembers.

The MusicBrainz release group ↗ dates the first release to 2 October 1974.

Take Me to the River — originals and covers on Wikipedia
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Fact-check

Setting the record straight

The Talking Heads single is a cover of a record that was already four years old — and written by the man who sang it first.

The beliefCover

Talking Heads, 1978

Their edited Sire single, released 30 June 1978 from More Songs About Buildings and Food, reached No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1979. It is the version most listeners know, and it is a cover.

The originalFirst recording

Al Green, 1974

Recorded with Willie Mitchell at Royal Studios in Memphis and released on Al Green Explores Your Mind (Hi Records) on 2 October 1974. Hi did not issue it as a single.

The writerComposition

Al Green and Mabon “Teenie” Hodges

Written by the two of them in 1973. Unusually for these pages, the first recording artist is also the author — the confusion is purely about who got there first.

The version in betweenThe hit single

Syl Johnson, 1975

Hi gave the song to Johnson rather than releasing Green’s take; his single, also produced by Willie Mitchell, reached No. 48 on the Hot 100 and No. 7 R&B. He is not the writer and not the first to record it.

Al Green wrote it and recorded it first, in 1974. Talking Heads made it famous in 1978.

Who wrote it

Who wrote it

Written by Al Green — not Talking Heads

How we traced the writing

The song is credited to Al Green and his guitarist Mabon ‘Teenie’ Hodges; Green wrote and recorded it first in 1974.

Talking Heads’ 1978 version was many listeners’ first encounter with the song, so it is often taken for theirs. They covered it; Green wrote it.

The same page’s other story is the recording (above): Green released it first, and the Talking Heads cover reached a new audience. He both wrote it and recorded it first.

Context

Why the cover swallowed the original

The usual explanation for a cover eclipsing an original is that the original was obscure. That is not what happened here. Al Green was one of the biggest soul artists in America in 1974, and Al Green Explores Your Mind went to No. 1 on the Soul Albums chart. The song simply never got a single of its own on Hi Records: the label pulled “Sha-La-La (Make Me Happy)” off the album as the hit, and when it wanted a single of “Take Me to the River” it cut a fresh one with labelmate Syl Johnson — same producer, most of the same musicians, harmonica added. Johnson’s record went to No. 48 pop and No. 7 R&B in 1975. Green’s version stayed an album track.

So by 1978 the song was in the air with no definitive single attached to its author. Byrne noted the traffic himself: Foghat, Bryan Ferry, Levon Helm and Talking Heads all had versions out around the same time. The one that stuck was the slowest and strangest, and it arrived on the radio of an audience with no particular reason to have heard a 1974 Memphis soul LP cut. The Talking Heads record became the reference version, and the song became, in most people’s heads, theirs.

The chronology, step by step
  • 1973 — Green and Teenie Hodges write the song over three days in a rented house at Lake Hamilton, Arkansas.
  • 2 October 1974 — Green’s recording is released on Al Green Explores Your Mind (Hi Records), produced by Willie Mitchell and Green at Royal Studios, Memphis. It is an album track, not a single.
  • 1975 — Hi passes the song to Syl Johnson, also produced by Willie Mitchell. His single reaches No. 48 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 7 R&B.
  • 1976 — Foghat record it for Night Shift.
  • 1978 — Levon Helm and Bryan Ferry each cut it for their own albums.
  • 30 June 1978 — Talking Heads’ edited version is released as a Sire single from More Songs About Buildings and Food; it peaks at No. 26 on the Hot 100 in February 1979.
  • 2004 — Green’s original recording is ranked No. 117 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
  • 2011 — Green’s 1974 recording is inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
It was never obscure. It just never got a single with Green’s name on it.

The original recording artist

Al Green

b. 1946 · American soul singer · Hi Records, Memphis

Albert Leornes Greene made a run of records in the early 1970s — “Tired of Being Alone,” “Let’s Stay Together,” “Love and Happiness” — that effectively defined Memphis soul for the decade, cut at Royal Studios with producer Willie Mitchell and the Hi Rhythm Section. He co-wrote “Take Me to the River” and recorded it for Al Green Explores Your Mind in 1974. He became pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in Memphis in 1976 and, by one account, dropped the song from his repertoire. His 1974 recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011.

Popularly credited as the original

Talking Heads

American rock band, formed New York City 1975 · Sire Records

David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison recorded the song with co-producer Brian Eno in Nassau for their second album, More Songs About Buildings and Food. Byrne initially resisted putting a cover on the record; Eno’s suggestion was to play it as slowly as the band could stand. Edited down for a single released on Sire on 30 June 1978, it reached No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1979 and became the band’s commercial breakthrough. Nothing about the record is a mistake except the chronology people attach to it.

The songwriter, with Green

Mabon “Teenie” Hodges

1945–2014 · American guitarist and songwriter

Teenie Hodges was the guitarist at the centre of the Hi Records sound, playing on Green’s hits alongside his brothers Charles and Leroy in the Hi Rhythm Section. He co-wrote “Take Me to the River” with Green, along with “Love and Happiness,” “L-O-V-E (Love)” and “Here I Am.” By Willie Mitchell’s account the two men wrote the tune together, with Green supplying the words, worked up over three days in a rented house at Lake Hamilton, Arkansas.