1973 · Behind the Songs
The third single from Call Me matched its predecessor on the charts and proved Green’s hot streak was no accident.
By the time “Here I Am (Come and Take Me)” arrived as a single, Al Green did not need to prove anything. The first two singles from Call Me had already done that. “You Ought to Be with Me” had reached number three on the pop chart and number one on the R&B chart in 1972, and “Call Me (Come Back Home)” had followed it to number ten pop and number two R&B. The album itself, released on July 18, 1973, on Hi Records, was selling on the strength of those hits. Yet Green and producer Willie Mitchell were not done. They reached back into the album for a third single, and “Here I Am (Come and Take Me)” matched its predecessor exactly: number ten on the pop chart, number two on the R&B chart. Three singles, three substantial hits, one album. It was the kind of consistency that turns a successful record into a landmark.
The song came from the same sessions that produced the rest of Call Me, recorded in 1972 at Royal Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, and produced by Willie Mitchell and Al Green. Those sessions had yielded an album that balanced romantic urgency with spiritual reflection, uptempo confidence with quiet devotion. “Here I Am (Come and Take Me)” belongs firmly to the confident side of that equation. Where some of Green’s ballads plead or ache, this one offers. The title is a statement of availability, not desperation. He is not begging to be taken; he is presenting himself, secure in the knowledge that what he offers is worth wanting.
Three Singles, One Sound
It is worth pausing on what Green and Mitchell accomplished with the three singles from Call Me. “You Ought to Be with Me” opened the campaign in 1972 with a number three pop and number one R&B showing, establishing that Green’s audience had not diminished since I’m Still in Love with You. “Call Me (Come Back Home)” followed with a number ten pop and number two R&B performance, proving the first hit was no fluke. Then “Here I Am (Come and Take Me)” duplicated that ten pop and two R&B placement, a rare feat of consistency. In an era when even major stars saw their singles fluctuate wildly in chart position, Green was delivering the same high-level result three times in a row from a single album.
That consistency was not accidental. It was the product of a settled, confident creative partnership. Mitchell had been producing Green since the beginning of his Hi Records run, and by 1972 the two men understood each other completely. Mitchell knew how to frame Green’s voice — when to surround it with strings, when to let the rhythm section carry the weight, when to pull everything back and let the singer work in near-silence. Green, for his part, trusted Mitchell’s instincts even when they meant holding back. The result was a series of records that sound effortless but were in fact meticulously constructed.
The Band Behind the Hits
The musicians who played on “Here I Am (Come and Take Me)” were the same core group heard across Call Me. Drummers Howard Grimes and Al Jackson Jr. provided the rhythmic foundation, with Charles Hodges on organ and piano, Leroy Hodges on bass, and Teenie Hodges on guitar locking into the interlocking grooves that defined the Hi Records sound. The Memphis Horns, including Wayne Jackson on trumpet and Andrew Love on tenor sax, added the brass accents that gave Green’s uptempo tracks their punch, while the Memphis Strings supplied the lush textures that softened the edges. Background vocals from Charles Chalmers, Donna Rhodes, and Sandra Rhodes filled out the choruses without ever overwhelming Green’s lead.
On this particular track, the arrangement showcases what made the Hi rhythm section so special. The groove is relaxed but insistent, a mid-tempo lope that gives Green room to phrase around the beat rather than being locked to it. Teenie Hodges’ guitar work is a study in restraint — short, clipped figures that comment on the vocal rather than competing with it. The organ swells at just the right moments, the horns punctuate rather than dominate, and the strings enter to lift the chorus without turning it into melodrama. It is a masterclass in accompaniment, the sound of musicians who know that their job is to make the singer sound even better than he already does.
What to Listen For
Start with Green’s entrance. He does not ease into “Here I Am (Come and Take Me)”; he announces himself. The opening line is delivered with a confidence that borders on swagger, but it is a warm swagger, an invitation rather than a boast. Throughout the track, his phrasing plays with time, sometimes rushing slightly ahead of the beat, sometimes laying back, always landing exactly where he means to. It is the vocal equivalent of a man who knows he looks good walking into a room and does not need to hurry.
Then notice how the background vocals function. Chalmers and the Rhodes sisters do not simply echo Green; they create a call-and-response dynamic that makes the record feel like a conversation. When Green sings the title phrase, their answers lift it, turn a solo statement into a communal one. This was a hallmark of the Mitchell-Green collaborations — the sense that even the most personal lyric was being shared, witnessed, affirmed by voices around the singer.
Finally, pay attention to the song’s architecture. Like the best of Green’s singles, it builds without seeming to. The first chorus is relatively restrained; by the final chorus, the strings are fuller, the horns more present, Green’s ad-libs more adventurous. Yet the track never feels like it is straining for effect. The intensity increases because the musicians are listening to each other and responding in real time, not because someone decided the record needed a bigger finish. It is organic, not manufactured, and that is why it still sounds fresh decades later.
“Here I Am (Come and Take Me)” may not be the first Al Green song that comes to mind — “Let’s Stay Together” and “Tired of Being Alone” tend to dominate those conversations — but its chart performance tells the real story. Number ten pop, number two R&B, the third hit from an album that already had two. In the summer of 1973, Al Green could seemingly do no wrong, and this single is the proof. It is confident, it is beautifully played, and it captures a moment when one of soul music’s greatest voices was at the absolute top of his game.