After achieving their breakthrough hit with "
Get Down and Get With It" in 1971, Slade would continue to achieve further success with their follow-up singles "
Coz I Luv You" and "
Look Wot You Dun", and the live album
Slade Alive!. In May 1972, the band released "Take Me Bak' Ome", which reached No. 1 in the UK and was a hit across Europe and beyond. In the United States, the song was the band's chart debut on the
Billboard Hot 100, where it reached No. 97. Shortly after the single's release, Slade played at the Great Western Festival near Lincoln. Before their performance, the band had fears over whether or not they could win over the 50,000-strong crowd. Now deemed a 'pop band', the announcement of their imminent appearance on the stage was met with outbreaks of booing from the audience. However, the band triumphed at the festival, the music press praised the performance and "Take Me Bak 'Ome" went on to reach No. 1 at the beginning of July. In a 1972 interview with
Sounds, guitarist
Dave Hill described the song as a "live, earth-dirt song". He said: "I felt much more out of that than I did from all the rest, it projected more, and it wasn't just a hit record. I didn't know if that kind of song could make it, and it was great having a thick, dirty song up at number one." "Take Me Bak 'Ome" was the next single after "Coz I Luv You" to be written by the band's successful Holder/Lea songwriting partnership. In the band's 1984 biography
Feel the Noize!, Lea recalled: ""Take Me Bak 'Ome" was an old song I'd had kicking around for ages. I re-vamped it a bit and nicked a phrase or two from The Beatles' "
Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey". Nobody ever noticed." During the recording of the song, Holder ab-libbed over the riff in the middle of the song. Lea suggested he change the ab-libs after the original one gave him the idea for the band's next single "
Mama Weer All Crazee Now". ==Release==