While most people think of John Denver and West Virginia when they hear “Take me Home, Country Roads”, its actual origin is much closer to home. The song was written by Bill Danoff and Taffy (Mary Catherine) Nivert, and completed with the help of John Denver.
Danoff was studying Chinese at Georgetown University, on track for a Foreign Service career. At night he was a doorman at one of the coolest small nightclubs in the country, the Cellar Door in DC. Bill met Taffy, his future wife, when she auditioned at the club for his band, “Fat City”. Eventually, Bill operated the sound and lighting board at the club and met some of the big-name talent. After graduation in 1969, Bill and Taffy pursued their music and songwriting around the DMV.
In the summer of 1970, Bill and Taffy were driving on Clopper Road, a two-lane idyllic country road. Except for farms, a few houses, and businesses, there was nothing between Gaithersburg and Boyds. They began to noodle with lyrics about country roads. They created the chorus and one verse, and they filed it away, thinking it might work for Johnnie Cash.
When interviewed in 2008 about the true story, Taffy Danoff answered, “The song began on Clopper Road in Gaithersburg, Md. on the way to a reunion of my mom’s family. Bill started singing “country roads, country roads, country roads.” “As songwriters, we were hard pressed to come up with a phrase that rhymed with “Maryland” and so poetic license took its natural course.”
Danoff knew John Denver since 1966 when John played at the Cellar Door replacing Chad Mitchell in the Mitchell Trio. The trio was a frequent booking at the club as was Denver’s later solo act which opened for comedian David Steinberg. When John Denver played as a headliner at the Cellar Door in the Summer of 1970, he went to watch Fat City at another local club. Denver heard Bill and Taffy’s song. “I Guess He’d Rather Be in Colorado” and recorded it straight away.
When John Denver, still a relative unknown, returned to the Cellar Door for a 2-week Christmas-to-New Year booking, he requested Fat City as his opening act. After the December 29th show, the bands headed to Danoff’s apartment to hang out and swap songs. Bill And Taffy had written more than 350 other songs. Denver had a car accident enroute and arrived late full of adrenaline and with a broken thumb. Bill and Taffy dug out their Clopper Road effort and the three songwriters worked through the night to finish the tune for the next night’s show. Denver with Bill and Taffy as backup closed that packed, sold-out December 30th show with “Take Me Home, Country Roads”. The 5-minute standing ovation launched John Denver’s career. The song became Denver’s first platinum single and a Grammy winner.
The Danoffs were close friends of Denver and his family, appearing as singers and songwriters on many of Denver’s albums until they formed the Starland Vocal Band in 1976. John Denver recorded 12 songs by Bill and Taffy.
Fat City toured big and small cities and towns all over the U.S.A., Canada, England, St. Croix and were second banana on a series of six variety shows on BBC in London in 1973 with John. They have been an opening act for John Denver, Tom Rush, Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens), John Prine, Moody Blues, Roger Miller, Argent, Jackson Browne, Emmylou Harris, Roy Acuff, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Sea Train, Cold Blood, Barbara Mandrell, and George Carlin. As the Starland Vocal Band, Bill and Taffy garnered four Grammy nominations and two Grammy awards with their 1976 hit “Afternoon Delight”.