America released Homecoming on November 15, 1972, through Warner Bros. Records. Their second studio album put Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and Dan Peek in charge as producers, with “Ventura Highway” opening a record that gave electric guitars and keyboards more room alongside the trio’s acoustic playing and harmonies.
The band had formed in London, but the follow-up took them to the Record Plant in Los Angeles. Drummer Hal Blaine and bassist Joe Osborn joined the sessions, adding an experienced rhythm section behind the three singers. The change of location also brought America closer to the landscapes Bunnell had been imagining while writing in England.
“Ventura Highway” began with a childhood memory. In a 2017 interview with SongwriterUniverse, Bunnell recalled his family driving along the California coast when his father had to stop and change a flat tire. While they waited near the beach, Bunnell noticed a freeway sign for Ventura. Back in England, the memory of that coastline supplied a setting for the song. He worked from chords to a melody, then developed the lyrics around them. The California song that opened Homecoming had taken shape an ocean away.
Writing individually didn’t mean arranging alone. Bunnell told Sound & Vision in 2015 that the trio worked through “Ventura Highway” together before recording. “We would arrange in a circle in a living room,” he recalled. A six- or twelve-string guitar and a bass could be enough to establish the parts, which they rehearsed until they knew them thoroughly. That preparation helps explain how three separate songwriters could sound like one band.
The division of material was unusually even: Beckley, Bunnell and Peek each wrote three of the album’s ten songs. Their differences gave the record room to move. Beckley’s “To Each His Own” centered on piano, while Peek’s “Don’t Cross the River” leaned toward country, with banjo played by Henry Diltz, who also photographed the album. Bunnell’s contributions extended beyond the opening single to “Moon Song” and “Cornwall Blank.”
There was room for studio experimentation, too. Backward vocals and guitars appeared on “Moon Song” and “Only in Your Heart,” expanding the arrangements beyond the straightforward acoustic foundation. Peek also revisited earlier material: “California Revisited” was a new recording of “Everyone I Meet Is From California,” which had appeared as the B-side of “A Horse With No Name.” The album’s broader instrumentation gave the trio another way to approach a song already in their catalog.
The tenth song came from John Martyn. On “Head and Heart,” America applied the same attention to vocal arrangement that shaped their originals. Bunnell described dividing the lines between singers and joining together for the choruses, with doubled vocals adding another layer. The cover made the collaboration especially clear: the writing came from outside the group, but the way they shared the singing belonged to the trio.
Homecoming became a U.S. Top 10 album and earned platinum certification. Its three charting singles represented all three writers: Bunnell’s “Ventura Highway,” Peek’s “Don’t Cross the River” and Beckley’s “Only in Your Heart.”
America continued producing themselves on Hat Trick in 1973. As the arrangements and production work grew more demanding, they decided to seek an outside producer. George Martin took that role for Holiday in 1974, beginning the next phase of their recording career after two consecutive albums under the trio’s own direction.
