''Homecoming'' is the second studio album by

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, released on November 15, 1972 through

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

. Acoustic guitar-based, with a more pronounced electric guitar and keyboard section than their first album, their second effort helped continue the band's success, and includes one of their best known hits, "

Ventura Highway "Ventura Highway" is a 1972 song by the band America from their album ''Homecoming'', written by Dewey Bunnell. Background Dewey Bunnell, the song's vocalist and writer, has said that the lyric "alligator lizards in the air" in the song is a r ...

." ''Homecoming'' peaked at number 9 on ''Billboard''s Pop Albums Chart and was certified platinum by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

. It produced three hit singles: "

", which peaked at number 8 on the ''Billboard'' singles chart and number 3 on the

adult contemporary chart The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to ''Billboard'' by sta ...

; "Don't Cross the River", which hit number 35 on ''Billboard'' and 23 on the AC chart; and "Only in Your Heart" peaked at number 62 on ''Billboard's'' Pop singles chart. Several other songs received radio airplay on FM stations playing album tracks, including "To Each His Own", "California Revisited", and "Cornwall Blank". For this album and the next six throughout the next five years, the group traditionally chose titles beginning with the letter "H" (the self-titled debut album became unofficially included in this distinction when fans started referring to it as the "Horse with No Name" album when that track was added to later pressings).

Reception

In his

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

review music critic David Cleary called ''Homecoming'' "America's finest album" and despite citing sometimes banal lyrics, wrote that "each song here has something to recommend it. This top-flight album is a very rewarding listen."

Track listing

Personnel

;America *Dan Peek –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

*Gerry Beckley – guitar, keyboards, vocals,

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

on "Till the Sun Comes Up Again" and "Head and Heart" *Dewey Bunnell – guitar, vocals,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

on "Head & Heart" with: * Joe Osborn – bass guitar *

Hal Blaine Hal Blaine (born Harold Simon Belsky; February 5, 1929 – March 11, 2019) was an American drummer and session musician, thought to be among the most recorded studio drummers in the music industry, claiming over 35,000 sessions and 6,000 singles. ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, percussion *

Gary Mallaber Gary Mallaber (born October 11, 1946 in Buffalo) is a Los Angeles session drummer, percussionist and singer. He attended Lafayette High School, where he and Bobby Militello, along with other musicians, were mentored by saxophonist Sam Scam ...

– drums and percussion on "Till the Sun Comes Up Again" ;Technical *

Gary Burden Gary Burden (May 23, 1933 – March 7, 2018) was an American artist specializing in the field of album covers. He is considered one of the pioneers of the concept of album cover art. Early life Gary Burden was born on May 23, 1933, in Cleveland ...

–

art direction Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the visi ...

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

Henry Diltz Henry Stanford Diltz (born September 6, 1938, in Kansas City, Missouri) is an American folk musician and photographer who has been active since the 1960s. Career Among the bands Diltz played with was the Modern Folk Quartet. While a member of ...

–

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

on "Don't Cross the River" *Bill Halverson –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

*Lee Herschberg – mastering *Chuck Leary – engineering assistance * Mike D. Stone of the

Record Plant The Record Plant is a recording studio established in New York City in 1968 and currently operating in Los Angeles, California. Known for innovations in the recording artists' workspace, it has produced highly influential albums, including Blon ...

– engineering *Yoshiro Nagato - liner notes

Charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Homecoming (America Album) 1972 albums America (band) albums Warner Records albums