Songfacts®:

• In this soft-rock hit, Dave Loggins drifts to different cities around the US and pleads with the girl he loves to join him. She refuses, wanting him to come home and build a life with her. Loggins was on tour with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band when he got the idea for the song. They made stops in Boston, Denver, and Los Angeles - all places the Tennessee-born singer-songwriter had never visited before - which became the locales for the lonely drifter in the tune.
  
  "The story is almost true, except there wasn't anyone waiting [here] so I made her up," Loggins explained on his former website. "In effect, making the longing for someone stronger. It was a recap to my first trip to each of those cities and out of innocence. That was how I saw each one. The fact of having no one to come home to made the chorus easy to write. Some 40 years later, I still vividly remember that night, and it was as if someone else was writing the song."
• Loggins was a second cousin of Kenny Loggins but, according to the "Footloose" singer, their families weren't close and they only met briefly. Unfortunately there's no chance for a collaboration as Dave died on July 10, 2024 at age 76.
• After issuing a mostly forgettable debut, Personal Belongings (it did boast "Pieces Of April," which became a hit for Three Dog Night the following year), on Vanguard in 1972, Loggins got lucky when he made the move to Epic and released the follow-up, Apprentice (In A Musical Workshop). "Please Come To Boston" was the album's lead single, and it peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
• Loggins continued to plug away at a recording career throughout the rest of the '70s and early '80s but rarely made the charts. His last hurrah as a singer was a hit duet with Anne Murray in 1984, "Nobody Loves Me Like You Do." Loggins shifted his focus to songwriting and penned hits for country acts like Alabama ("She And I,") The Oak Ridge Boys ("Everyday"), The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band ("I Love Only You"), Juice Newton ("You Make Me Want To Make You Mine"), Gary Morris ("I'll Never Stop Loving You"), Kenny Rogers ("Morning Desire"), and Reba McEntire ("One Promise Too Late"), among others. He also composed "Augusta," the long-running theme of the Masters Golf Tournament.
  
  Loggins was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1995.
• This was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 1975 ceremony, but lost to Stevie Wonder for Fulfillingness' First Finale.
• Many artists have covered this, including David Allan Coe, Joan Baez, Reba McEntire, Tammy Wynette, Glen Campbell, Garth Brooks, Willie Nelson, Kenny Chesney, Lee Hazlewood, Babyface, Brandy, and Tori Amos.