Night Ride Home

This article is about the Joni Mitchell album. For the 1999 film of the same name, see Night Ride Home (film).

Night Ride Home
Studio album by
Joni Mitchell
ReleasedFebruary 19, 1991
Recorded1989–1990
StudioA&M (Hollywood, California)
One on One (North Hollywood, California)
The Kiva (Encino, California)
GenreAdult alternative
Length51:43
LabelGeffen
ProducerJoni Mitchell, Larry Klein
Joni Mitchell chronology
Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm
(1988) 		Night Ride Home
(1991) 		Turbulent Indigo
(1994)
Singles from Night Ride Home
  1. "Night Ride Home"
    Released: February 1991 (UK)
  2. "Come in from the Cold"
    Released: June 24, 1991
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[2]
Entertainment Weekly[3]
Los Angeles Times[4]
Rolling Stone[5]

Night Ride Home is the 14th album by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, released in 1991. It was the last of four albums she recorded for Geffen Records.

Songs on the album include "Cherokee Louise" about a childhood friend who suffered sexual abuse, "The Windfall (Everything for Nothing)" about a maid who tried to sue Mitchell, and the retrospective single release "Come in from the Cold" about childhood and middle age. The title song "Night Ride Home" (originally titled "Fourth of July" and first performed during promotion for her previous album in 1988) was inspired by a moonlit night in Hawaii.[6] Though the album contained no charting singles, it received critical acclaim, and the track "Come in from the Cold" received airplay on AOR stations.

This was Mitchell's first album not to be distributed by the WEA family of labels. She had been signed to WEA's Asylum and Reprise labels in the past, and Warner Bros. Records had been the distributor for Geffen Records from 1980 to 1990. That year, Geffen was sold to MCA Music (now Universal Music Group), as a result, the album was distributed by Uni Distribution Corp. (the distribution arm of MCA Music), which also took over the rest of the Geffen catalogue.

A home video release, Come In from the Cold, was released the same year and features promo videos for five tracks from the album along with an interview with Mitchell discussing the inspiration behind them.

As of December 2007, the album had sold 238,000 copies in the US.[7]

  1. ^ Chrispell, James (2011). "Night Ride Home – Joni Mitchell | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  2. ^ Larkin, Colin (2011). "Mitchell, Joni". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
  3. ^ Sanders, L. (1991). "Night Ride Home". ew.com. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  4. ^ Willman, Chris (2011). "ALBUM REVIEW : **** JONI MITCHELL 'Night Ride Home', Geffen – Los Angeles Times". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  5. ^ "Joni Mitchell". Rolling Stone. Retrieved July 10, 2013.
  6. ^ Hilburn, Robert (December 7, 1996). "Joni Mitchell looks at both sides now: her hits -- and misses". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 1, 2004. Retrieved October 31, 2021 – via South Coast Today.
  7. ^ Caulfield, Keith (December 21, 2007). "Ask Billboard". Billboard. Retrieved May 18, 2018.