co-produced by matthews with sandy roberton, who had produced matthews' 1972 plainsong project, "stealin' home" had its uk release on roberton's rockburgh records label as roc 106 and was picked up for september 1978 release in the us and canada by mushroom records as mrs-5012. matthews would give credit to mushroom for the success of the album's lead single "shake it", which afforded matthews his first solo top 40 hit: ()"i've had potential hit singles on [earlier] albums... but there's never been the enthusiasm i've had from this record company. it [gave] me a hit single." spearheaded by the success of "shake it", "stealin' home" became matthews' first album to rise above the lower end of the "billboard" 200 album chart where it reached a #80 peak in february concurrent with the #13 "billboard" hot 100 peak of the "shake it" single, which would remain matthews' only top 40 hit, the second single from the "stealin' home" album: "give me an inch", peaking at #67 and proving matthews final hot 100 entry. (matthews, who had reached #23 on the hot 100 in 1972 fronting the matthews' southern comfort single "woodstock", had as a solo act had one prior hot 100 entry with "da doo ron ron" also in 1972.) matthews would be afforded his final appearance on a "billboard" chart via the third single off "stealin' home": "don't hang up your dancing shoes", which peaked at #42 on the magazine's easy listening hit ranking, on which "shake it" had reached #21 and "give me an inch #43.