"You're My Home" is a single by

Billy Joel William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Piano Man" after his Signature song, signature 1973 song Piano Man (song), of the same name, Joel has ha ...

. It was originally on Joel's 1973 album '' Piano Man'', and also appears on ''

Songs in the Attic ''Songs in the Attic'' is the first live album by Billy Joel, released in 1981. At the time of its release, it was the first widely available appearance of music from his first album, ''Cold Spring Harbor'', released in 1971. History In the lin ...

'' (1981), '' The Ultimate Collection'' (2000), ''

The Essential Billy Joel ''The Essential Billy Joel'' is a Sony music compilation of songs by American singer/songwriter Billy Joel. It was released on October 2, 2001, and has been certified Triple Platinum by the RIAA. In conjunction with the release of the album, ''Th ...

'' (2001) and ''

12 Gardens Live ''12 Gardens Live'' is the fourth live album by American singer/songwriter Billy Joel, recorded during a former record run of 12 sold-out concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York City in early 2006. It was released on June 13, 2006. Althou ...

'' (2006). The song appears as a

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

on "Piano Man" and "All My Life" singles. The song was also covered by

Helen Reddy Helen Maxine Reddy (25 October 194129 September 2020) was an Australian-American singer, actress, television host, and activist. Born in Melbourne to a show business family, Reddy started her career as an entertainer at age four. She sang on ra ...

on her album Love Song for Jeffrey, which was released as the flipside of her " Keep On Singing" single. It was also recorded by Sami Jo Cole on her album ''Sami Jo'' produced by Jimmy Bowen.

Background

The song was written for Joel's first wife (and business manager) Elizabeth Weber because he could not afford to buy her anything while in California. As Joel says in the liner notes of ''Songs in the Attic'', "Corny but true; I was broke at the time ('73) so I wrote this for my wife as a Valentine's Day gift". The bridge makes references to

Pennsylvania Turnpike The Pennsylvania Turnpike, sometimes shortened to Penna Turnpike or PA Turnpike, is a controlled-access toll road which is operated by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) in Pennsylvania. It runs for across the southern part of the st ...

, the early morning

dew Dew is water in the form of droplets that appears on thin, exposed objects in the morning or evening due to condensation. As the exposed surface cools by thermal radiation, radiating its heat, atmospheric moisture condenses at a rate grea ...

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

and the hills of California. The original version is accompanied by a finger-picked acoustic guitar as well as a

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a console steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music to be played than with other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play ...

. The latter introduces a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

element to the song. The live version on ''Songs in the Attic'' omits the pedal steel guitar, but it is included on the live version from the "All My Life" single. The version from ''Songs in the Attic'' was released as a single in Australia and as a promotional-only release in UK.

Critical reception

Author Ken Bielen describes "You're My Home" as being from the

Jim Croce James Joseph Croce (; January 10, 1943 – September 20, 1973) was an American Folk music, folk and rock singer-songwriter. Between 1966 and 1973, he released five studio albums and numerous singles. During this period, Croce took a series of o ...

school of singer-songwriting.

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

critic

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and former senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of multiple artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance ...

describes it as the one introspective song on the ''Piano Man'' album. Erlewine does state that the line "instant pleasure dome" indicates that Joel "doesn't have an ear for words".

Helen Reddy's cover version

Australian singer

's cover version incorporates an orchestral arrangement, in addition to a finger-picked acoustic guitar. Joel was critical of Reddy's version; he commented of her cover: "Helen Reddy once cut something of mine, a song called 'You're My Home,' which wasn't great. I did it at a gig once and introduced it sayin,' 'This is a song of mine Helen Reddy cut... to pieces.' Turns out her husband or her manager was in the audience, and they were talkin' about suing me. Then Helen got in touch and said she was never recording one of my songs again, and I was like, 'D'you promise?' Kind of a smart-ass reply – maybe I shoulda just shut up. I gotta let these things go, it shouldn't bother me."

In popular culture

The song was used to wake up astronauts aboard

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

mission

STS-132 STS-132 ( ISS assembly flight ULF4) was a NASA Space Shuttle mission, during which Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'' docked with the International Space Station on May 16, 2010. STS-132 was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on May 14, 2010. The pri ...

in May 2010. The song was selected for astronaut

Kenneth Ham Kenneth Todd "Hock" Ham (born December 12, 1964) is a retired American astronaut and a captain in the United States Navy. Ham was selected for NASA's astronaut program in August 1998, while serving as the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet lead carrier suita ...

References

{{Authority control Billy Joel songs Songs written by Billy Joel 1973 songs 1973 singles Song recordings produced by Michael Stewart (musician) Helen Reddy songs