1971 Smash Hit's Little-Known Against-the-Odds Success Story, Still Amazes 55 Years Later
A 1971 smash hit became an instant favorite with listeners, but its unlikely path to success is a story many fans have never heard.
In April of that year, John Denver released "Take Me Home, Country Roads." The song, from the LP Poems, Prayers, and Promises, had a slow-burn start, and didn't hit its peak No. 2 position until four months later, in August.
The song's rise to popularity in the United States can be traced to a little-known story involving a West Virginia teenager. According to Metro News, the teen played a pivotal role in turning the track into a nationwide hit.
A 15-year-old DJ at radio station WMOV, David Hoyt, acquired a copy of "Take Me Home, Country Roads" from a listener whose son was stationed in the military overseas. The song was reportedly first released in Europe before becoming a stateside hit.
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"A listener's son had been stationed overseas. She saw him perform the song, or rather he did, and bought the album. He brought it home with him, so he and his mom brought it to the station for me to hear," Hoyt said.
"I may have only been like 15 at the time, but I knew what a hit song sounded like. We started playing it on WMOV, and the response was just amazing," he added.
Hoyt reportedly began producing copies of the single and sharing them with other local DJ's, and listeners were said to have called Denver's record company, RCA, asking the song to be released as a single in the states.
Hoyt soon received a call from Denver's manager, Jerry Weintraub, and he told him the song was "lightning in a bottle" and that "he needed to call RCA and tell them to release it here because I thought the song would sell a million copies just in West Virginia."
He concluded, "It dropped off the charts after a few months, and they wanted to go ahead and release something else, and I guess John Denver convinced RCA to stay with the song, so it eventually came back on the charts and climbed to the top ten, and, of course, ever since then, it's just grown in leaps and bounds in popularity."
"Take Me Home Country Roads" was written by John Denver and Bill and Taffy Danoff. In March 2014, the West Virginia legislature passed a resolution designating "Take Me Home, Country Roads" as one of four official state songs.
Related: 1970s Country Classic Earns Spot Among the Best Songs of the Decade
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This story was originally published June 9, 2026 at 6:22 AM.