Kenny Loggins - Celebrate Me Home

The studio version was released in 1977 on Columbia 10652 (with "Why Do People Lie" as the B-side). The live version was released in 1980 on Columbia 11417 (with the studio version as the B-side).

Edited by Paul Haney

John, "Celebrate Me Home" was initially released as the 2nd and final single, off the album of the same name, his first solo LP. The first 45 from it, "I Believe In Love", did make the Hot 100, but was a national midchart. This 1977 45 release of "Celebrate Me Home" did not make the Hot 100, did not "Bubble Under", and did not appear on the Billboard Christmas singles chart. Also, the ARSA "Old Top 40 Music Surveys Database", that I help maintain, does not show a SINGLE station that charted it, in 1977. But it did became a HUGE concert favorite for him, even an "anthem" of sorts. So, when he released the "Kenny Loggins Alive" LP, in late 1980, it was the natural choice for a second 45 release. And, in the spirit of the later "Save A Prayer" by Duran Duran, and as Paul already stated, they included the 1977 original studio version on the 1980 45's flip side. But, again, the 1980 45 release didn't even make the Hot 100. Nor did it "Bubble Under", nor did it appear on the Billboard Christmas chart in 1980. So, and as with 1977, I just cannot find even a SINGLE ARSA-posted 1980 survey, that charted this song. The station you worked at may have been the ONLY one in the U.S. that played it, John! Do you have any old surveys from there? I acknowledge that, for many years now, it has been considered a "Kenny Loggins Classic". But I never have been able to find even the SMALLEST crumb of evidence of radio airplay for it, either in 1977 or in 1980, and we never did either, until your statement above.

Unfortunately, Jim, WKSN in Jamestown, NY was neither a reporting station (too small a market), nor did we have any surveys. Guess the gentleman who was Music Director before me in late 1980 had a good ear for the live version and felt Kenny Loggins was a natural fit for the adult format we had.

I took over as Music Director in January, 1981.

Promo 45 for this came in today....

1) Studio Version is 3:52.

2) Live Version is 4:19.

AndrewChouffi wrote: I also remember hearing it on the radio in 1977, but it wasn't on the top-40 stations. It seemed back then some markets had something similar to what we now call AAA stations. The "format" or (more accurately non-format) was laid-back announcers, adult music, album cuts played liberally, nothing too heavy or too progessive, not ultra-currents based. Artists like Van Morisson, Jesse Colin Young, Kenny Loggins. Songs like "And It Stoned Me", "Songbird" "Angry Eyes". New class acts like Dire Straits, Rickie Lee Jones. Most did not report to the trades. Even some of the "syndicated" FM top-40 formats had a sprinkling of the above to make it appear as an alternative to the younger-leaning AM top-40's. I actually wish this type of format would reappear, as AAA current titles are heavily "worked" by the record companies, so it's obvious the station isn't picking a few "best cuts" off a new album.

This format sounds a lot like the "old" WMGK in Philadelphia, which used to play artists like Kenny Rankin, Roger Whittaker and Paul Williams as well as some of those others you mentioned. It was sort of a "hip" version of Adult Contemporary.

"Celebrate Me Home" didn't become a Christmas "standard" until pretty recently, like the past five years or so. When Christmas-formatted radio started playing it, at first I thought it was a re-recording, because it had been literally 25 years since I'd heard it on the radio, and AC stations had picked up on a re-recorded version of "House at Pooh Corner" not long before the re-emergence of "Celebrate Me Home." I even thought it might be a "Christmas" version of the song, much as Jim Brickman has recorded "Holiday Versions" of some of his non-holiday singles, because of my long unfamiliarity with the original recording.