"Don't Leave Home" is the third single released in the UK from Dido's second album, Life for Rent. It was officially released on 12 April 2004. Even though it didn't go further than number 25 on the UK Singles Chart, it stayed in the charts for nine weeks. The song was however a radio hit, peaking at #1 on the official airplay chart in early 2004.

"Don't Leave Home" deals with drug addiction. It is written and sung from the unusual point of view of the drug singing to the person who is addicted to it. It was originally a demo recorded for her 1999 album No Angel that was instead included on the 2003 album, Life for Rent. It was written and produced by Dido Armstrong and her brother Rollo Armstrong. The song is set in common time composed in a moderate tempo of 80 beats per minute, written in F♯ Major with a vocal range from the tone of F♯₄ to the note of C♯₆. The B-side, "Stoned", is a song which tells the story of an unwinding relationship, clouded through drugs, as the title suggests. "Stoned" was remixed by Deep Dish as "Stoned (Deep Dish Remix)". This version peaked at number-one on the Hot Dance Club Songs.

The Jake Nava-directed music video for "Don't Leave Home" starts with the singer driving on a desert road as it gets dark. Suddenly, she finds herself in front of a forest. Dido leaves the car, drops her suitcase on the ground, and enters the forest. Some of the themes and scenery imply drug addiction, like the hazy affects, the forest filled with mushrooms and hallucinations of spiders and snakes. She leaves the forest and comes across a huge rock-like cliff by the ocean. She sings calmly by the cliff before jumping into the ocean and finds herself on a wide strand with white sand singing out to the ocean. The video ends with the car driving on with broken white lines.

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Wikipedia