"Give Me Back My Hometown" is a song co-written and recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

singer

Eric Church Kenneth Eric Church (born May 3, 1977) is an American country music singer-songwriter. He has released nine studio albums through Capitol Nashville since 2005. His debut album, 2006's '' Sinners Like Me'', produced three singles on the ''Billboar ...

. It was released in January 2014 as the second single from his 2014 album '' The Outsiders''. The song reached number one on the US '' Billboard'' Country Airplay chart in May 2014. It also peaked at number 4 on Hot Country Songs. Church wrote this song with

Luke Laird Luke Robert Laird (born May 4, 1978 in Hartstown, Pennsylvania) is an American country music songwriter and producer. He has written over 20 number one ''Billboard'' singles, including Carrie Underwood's "So Small", "Temporary Home", and " Un ...

Critical reception

Matt Bjorke of ''Roughstock'' gave the single 4 out of 5 stars, saying that "

Jay Joyce John Joseph "Jay" Joyce is an American record producer, songwriter and session musician. In the 1990s, Joyce, with Chris Feinstein and Brad Pemberton, recorded and toured as Iodine and began working as a record producer, working with artists suc ...

's production once again finds musically interesting things to do while Church earnestly sings about the loss of his hometown, not because it’s actually gone or changed but because the girl who helped it make it worthwhile has left him and the town back" and "for the middle of the road fan who likes the softer moments of Eric Church’s music…this one should easily be much more pleasing to them than "The Outsiders" was."

Commercial performance

Eric Church had his best debut on the chart when the song entered at No. 95 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and No. 39 on the Hot Country Songs during its first week, with 28,000 copies sold. The following week, the song climbed to No. 55 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and No. 25 on Hot Country Songs. The song also topped the Country Digital Song chart with over 61,000 copies sold. The song then jumped to No. 36 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on its 14th week of release, and No. 4 on the Hot Country Songs chart on its 15th. As of June 2014, "Give Me Back My Hometown" has sold 758,000 copies in the United States. The song also debuted at No. 61 on the Canadian Hot 100 during its first week and climbed to No. 30 the week after.

Music video

Peter Zavadil directed the accompanying

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

for this song. According to ''The Boot'', the video "features Church singing as an ominous story plays out, including a priest (

Steven Michael Quezada Steven Michael Quezada (); born February 15, 1963) is an American actor and politician. He played Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Steven Gomez in the AMC series ''Breaking Bad'' from 2008 to 2013 and 2 episodes of its spin-off, ''Bet ...

) presiding over a roadside funeral in a rundown part of town." In response to viewers' confusion over the meaning of the video's story, Church said that " edon't understand it either." It was later stated that the story would continue with the video for each single from the album.

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{authority control 2014 songs 2014 singles Country ballads 2010s ballads Eric Church songs EMI Records singles Songs written by Eric Church Songs written by Luke Laird Song recordings produced by Jay Joyce Music videos directed by Peter Zavadil