Do You Wanna Go to Heaven

"Do You Wanna Go to Heaven"
Single by T. G. Sheppard
from the album Smooth Sailin'
B-side	"How Far Our Love Goes"
Released	July 1980
Genre	Country
Length	3:10
Label	Warner Bros./Curb
Writer(s)	Curly Putman Bucky Jones
Producer	Buddy Killen
T. G. Sheppard singles chronology
"Smooth Sailin'" (1980) "Do You Wanna Go to Heaven" (1980) "I Feel Like Loving You Again" (1980)

"Do You Wanna Go to Heaven" is a 1980 single written by Curly Putman and Bucky Jones and recorded by T.G. Sheppard. "Do You Wanna Go to Heaven" would be T.G. Sheppard's fifth number one on the country chart. The single went to number one for one week and spent a total of eleven weeks on the country chart.^[1]

Song story

The song's story is told through the eyes of a promiscuous young man who has had many sexual experiences, and plays upon the double-meaning of the word "heaven." He first recalls his baptism and how the preacher asked the protagonist (then a young boy), "Do you want to go to Heaven," referring to the religious concept of the afterlife (where good people go after their death).

Later in the song, the man recalls his sexual awakening, where—after a high school dance -- he and his teen-aged girlfriend, Bonnie Lou, are alone. Bonnie Lou uses her charms to come on to her boyfriend, asking him before they initiate sex, "Do you want to go to heaven." In this sense, "heaven" refers to the blissful experience of sexual intercourse.

In the final verse, the man is broken down and drowning his sorrows at a tavern. He sees a possible sexual partner at the end of the bar; her actual desirability is not stated. Neither one shows any resistance as the two begin their encounter, as once again the term "heaven" refers to the intense pleasure of sex.

At the end of each verse, the man says, "I'll never forget, I remember it yet, that taste of that pure, clean water," before recalling to various degrees the words of the preacher and his expectations that he'll live a Christ-centered life. The man, as a young boy and teenager, upholds this promise until—as the song progresses—they become dimmer (his first experience with Bonnie Lou) to totally forgotten (the drunken encounter with the woman at the end of the bar).

Chart performance

Chart (1980)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles	1
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	15

References

1. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 313. 

Preceded by "Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You" by Dolly Parton

Billboard Hot Country Singles number-one single October 4, 1980

Succeeded by "Loving Up a Storm" by Razzy Bailey