Biographer Nicholas Jennings so eloquently summed singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot’s career.
"His name is synonymous with timeless songs about trains and shipwrecks, rivers and highways, lovers and loneliness,” Lightfoot’s biographer wrote.
Lightfoot died May 1 in Toronto, Canada. No cause of death was given, but he was fighting serious health issues for several years. He was 84.
Lightfoot already was a star in Canada and well known among U.S. singer/songwriters when he broke through with a hit in the States.
He had his first hits in his home country of Canada in 1962. Canadian folk singers Ian and Sylvia and U.S. folkies Peter, Paul & Mary started covering his songs in the mid-1960s, and Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, Marty Robbins and Elvis Presley, among others, followed.
He finally hit gold in the U.S. in 1970 with our Song of the Day, “If You Could Read My Mind.” It sold more than a million copies in the U.S. and reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Lightfoot was an admitted serial philanderer, and it was a theme in many of his songs. Our Song of the Day is him reflecting on his divorce from his first wife.
He had his biggest U.S. hit, “Sundown,” in 1974. The single and the album of the same name reached number one.
“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” a song about the sinking of the freighter (and a previous Song of the Day), reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976.
Lightfoot never had the same success again in the U.S, but he never stopped touring and making albums. He played his final concert October 30, 2022.
Song of the Day is created by Sheldon Zoldan, and produced by Pam James for WGCU. Audio production is by Simon Dunham, WGCU. To receive the Song of the Day in your inbox every day, email shzoldan@comcast.net with the subject line ADD ME TO SOTD.
