| You Don't Have to Go Home | |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Gretchen Wilson |
| Album: | One of the Boys |
| Released: | October 1, 2007 |
| Length: | 3:17 |
| Label: | Columbia Nashville |
| Prev Title: | One of the Boys |
| Prev Year: | 2007 |
| Year: | 2007 |
| Next Title: | Don't Do Me No Good |
| Next Year: | 2008 |
"You Don't Have to Go Home" is a song by American country music artist Gretchen Wilson. The song was written by Wilson, Vicky McGehee, and John Rich and produced by Wilson, Rich, and Mark Wright. The song was released on October 1, 2007, by Columbia Nashville as the third and final single from Wilson's third studio album One of the Boys (2007). The song describes a bartender closing up shop and telling all the patrons to leave.
It was Wilson's first single to miss the top 40 of the US Hot Country Songs chart.
In album reviews, "You Don't Have to Go Home" received favorable reviews from music critics. In a review for The Austin Chronicle, they gave the single a positive reception and called it a "recount of her barmaid past."[1] In his review, Robert Christgau noted the song as a highlight from One of the Boys along with "If You Want a Mother".[2] In an overall negative review for Slant Magazine, Jonathan Keefe negatively called the single derivative and said it "didn't hold up in the album's company."[3]
"You Don't Have to Go Home" debuted at number 60 on the US Hot Country Songs chart the week of October 20, 2007. It reached its peak position of number 53 on the chart on November 3, 2007.