Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Lightfoot , CC , O.Ont (born November 17, 1938 in Orillia , Ontario ) is a Canadian folk and country singer and songwriter . The Canadian has been known in Europe since 1970 with the song If You Could Read My Mind .

Life

Lightfoot, who already recorded some solo records in the 1960s, was initially more successful as a songwriter (including for George Hamilton IV. Or Peter, Paul and Mary ). Even Elvis Presley coverte repeatedly songs from Lightfoot, such as "That's What You Get for Lovin 'Me" or "Early Mornin' Rain". The latter song was also recorded by Bob Dylan and Paul Weller . His first own international hit in 1970 was "If You Could Read My Mind". This piece also made him known to a larger audience in Germany, but only in 1972 via the instrumental version of the Swedish group The Spotnicks . Daliah Lavi sang the German cover version "Would I be a book".

When reporting on the 1972 Summer Olympics, ARD presented a regular audience competition in which the most beautiful female athlete had to be chosen, and each candidate presented Lightfoot's composition. In 2006 the song again gained attention in the very soulful interpretation of Johnny Cash , who had recorded it for his last CD "American V: A Hundred Highways" shortly before his death.

In the 1970s, Lightfoot brought its folk sound, which was mainly accompanied by acoustic guitars and bass, closer to the mainstream by including other instruments such as electric guitar and drums. In 1974 he had a number one hit in the USA with "Sundown" (single and album). His last great success in the charts was "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald " in 1976 , the ballad of a ship disaster on the Great Lakes . Since the 1980s, Lightfoot, who is still active on stage and in the studio, is no longer represented in the American top 50. Health problems ( abdominal aortic aneurysm ) forced him to take a longer break in 2002/2003. In 2004 he was able to present a new album with “Harmony” and appeared in July 2005 as part of the Canadian Live 8 concert.

In 1986 Gordon Lightfoot was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame . The laudatory speech was given by Bob Dylan .

In 2003, Vincent Gallo used the song "Beautiful" for the soundtrack of his American-Japanese-French independent essay film The Brown Bunny .

In February 2010, Canadian media reported the death of Lightfoot, but the latter corrected the false report himself by broadcasting a live call to a radio station.

In 2013, Gordon Lightfoot received the Canadian JUNO Award.

He recorded his album Solo (2020) at Grant Avenue Studio in Hamilton, Ontario .

Discography

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	UK	US
1969	Sunday Concert	-	-	US143 (6 weeks) US	Recorded live in March 1969 at Massey Hall , Toronto
1970	Sit Down Young Stranger / If You Could Read My Mind	-	-	US12 gold (37 weeks)US	the album was renamed after the success of the single. Contributors include Ry Cooder , Van Dyke Parks , John Sebastian , Randy Newman
1971	Summer Side of Life	-	-	US38 (20 weeks) US
	Classic Lightfoot (The Best of Lightfoot / Vol. 2)	-	-	US178 (5 weeks) US	Best of album
1972	Don Quixote	-	UK44 (1 week) UK	US42 (17 weeks) US
	Old Dan's Records	-	-	US95 (12 weeks) US
1974	Sundown	-	UK45 (1 week) UK	US1 platinum (42 weeks)US
	The Very Best of Gordon Lightfoot	-	-	US155 (9 weeks) US	Best of album
1975	Cold on the shoulder	-	-	US10 (20 weeks) US
	Gord's gold	-	UK- gold UK	US34 × 2 Double platinum (24 weeks)US	Best of album; Lightfoot has re-recorded some older hits for the compilation; originally a double album, later shortened by one title as a CD; CA:× 2Double platinum
1976	Summertime Dream	-	-	US12 platinum (41 weeks)US	CA: platinum
1978	Endless wire	-	-	US22nd gold (20 weeks)US
1980	Dream Street Rose	-	-	US60 (11 weeks) US
1982	Shadows	-	-	US87 (12 weeks) US
1983	Salute	-	-	US175 (5 weeks) US
1986	East of Midnight	-	-	US165 (6 weeks) US	CA: gold
2002	Complete Greatest Hits	-	-	US128 gold (7 weeks)US	Best of album CA:gold
2020	solo	-	-	-

More albums

• Two Tones at the Village Corner , 1962 (with Terry Whelan)
• Canadian Talent Library: Folk Songs , 1964 (Gordon Lightfoot sings 6 of 18 songs)
• Lightfoot , 1966
• The Way I Feel , 1967
• Did She Mention My Name , 1968
• Back Here on Earth , 1968
• Early Lightfoot , 1971
• Early Morning Rain , 1976
• Gord's Gold Volume 2 , 1988 (14 new entries, CA:platinum, US: gold)
• Waiting for You , 1993
• A Painter Passing Through , 1998
• Harmony , 2004
• All Live , 2012 (recorded live from 1998 to 2001 at Massey Hall )

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	UK	US
1970	If You Could Read My Mind Sit Down Young Stranger	-	UK30 (9 weeks) UK	US5 (15 weeks) US
1971	Talking in Your Sleep Summer Side of Life	-	-	US64 (7 weeks) US
	Summer Side of Life Summer Side of Life	-	-	US98 (2 weeks) US
1972	Beautiful Don Quixote	-	-	US58 (11 weeks) US
1974	Sundown Sundown	DE30 (10 weeks) DE	UK33 (7 weeks) UK	US1 gold (18 weeks)US
	Carefree Highway Sundown	-	-	US10 (14 weeks) US
1975	Rainy Day People Cold on the Shoulder	-	-	US26 (11 weeks) US
1976	The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald Summertime Dream	-	UK40 (4 weeks) UK	US2 (21 weeks) US	sings about the history of the ore carrier Edmund Fitzgerald , which in on 10 November 1975 Lake Superior had sunk
1977	Race Among the Ruins Summertime Dream	-	-	US65 (4 weeks) US
1978	The Circle Is Small (I Can See It in Your Eyes) Endless Wire	-	-	US33 (12 weeks) US
	Daylight Katy Endless Wire	-	UK41 (6 weeks) UK	-
1982	Baby Step Back Shadows	-	-	US50 (8 weeks) US

More singles

• Canadian Railroad Trilogy (1967)
• If I Could (1971)
• That Same Old Obsession (1972)
• You Are What I Am (1972)

Video albums

• 2011: Live in Reno (CA:gold)

Filmography

• 1982: Harry Tracy - The Last of the Wild Bunch

literature

• Stambler, Irwin: The Encyclopedia Of Pop, Rock And Soul . 3rd revised edition, New York City, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989, pp. 406f - ISBN 0-312-02573-4 .
• Jennings, Nicholas: Lightfoot . In Engl. Language. Toronto: Viking Canada (Penguin Random House), 2017, 336 pages, ISBN 978-0735232556 .

swell

1. ^ Canadian Music Hall of Fame - Inductees. Canadian Music Hall of Fame , accessed August 6, 2017 . 
2. ↑ The genesis of the hoax - Medienwatchblog Kobuk.at
3. ↑ http://canadianmusichalloffame.ca/inductee/gordon-lightfoot/
4. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: DE UK US
5. ↑ ^{a b} US singles: Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-2006. Billboard Books, New York 2007, ISBN 0-89820-172-1 . / US albums: The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Sources for awards: CA US UK
7. ↑ Gord's Gold (album) on Allmusic
8. ↑ All Live (album) on Allmusic

Web links

Commons : Gordon Lightfoot  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Website Gordon Lightfoot!
• Gordon Lightfoot at Allmusic (English)
• Sound carrier by Gordon Lightfoot in the catalog of the German National Library
• Gordon Lightfoot in the Internet Movie Database (English)