Gordon Lightfoot
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 Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr., CC, O.Ont, LL.D (born November 17, 1938) is a Canadian folk singer, composer, lyricist and poet.

Contents
1 Life
2 Honours
3 Trivia
4 Best-selling songs
5 Tribute and covers
6 Discography
6.1 Original Albums
6.2 Compilations
6.3 Other

 Life
Lightfoot was born November 17, 1938 to Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Sr. and Jessica Lightfoot in Orillia, Ontario, Canada. As a youth, he sang in the choir of St. Paul's United Church under the direction of choir-master Ray Williams. Lightfoot remarked in 2005 that it was Williams who "taught him how to sing with emotion and how to have confidence in his voice".[1]

Lightfoot moved to Los Angeles, California during the 1950s where he studied at Hollywood's Westlake College of Music. He returned to Canada by the early 1960s and began performing in coffee houses in the Toronto folk scene. He sang with Terry Whelan in a duo called the Two Tones. They released a live album recorded in 1962 called Two Tones at the Village Corner.[2] In 1966, his debut album Lightfoot! was released and it brought him recognition as a songwriter. It featured many now-famous songs including For Lovin' Me, Early Mornin' Rain, Steel Rail Blues and Ribbon of Darkness.

On the strength of this album, which mixed Canadian and universal themes, Lightfoot became one of the first Canadian singers to achieve real stardom in his own country without moving to the United States. The album was released internationally and was also well-recieved. It was followed by numerous other albums through the late 1960s. But he remained better known as a songwriter than as a singer, with cover versions of his songs recorded by artists such as Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley.

It was not until 1971 that his own version of "If You Could Read My Mind" became a Top Ten hit. The song was originally featured on his 1970 album "Sit Down Young Stranger" which had not been selling that well. After the success of the song, the album on which it was originally featured was re-released under the new title "If You Could Read My Mind" to capitalize on the success of the song. It was also in 1971 that on a bus bound for Calgary, Gordon met a lonely teenage girl named Grace on her way home from Toronto, and in 1972, the song "Alberta Bound" found its debut on the Don Quixote album.

In 1974, his classic single, "Sundown", went to No.1 on the American charts. Two years later, Lightfoot had an unexpected hit with a song with the unlikeliest of subject matter. In late November, 1975, Lightfoot read a Newsweek magazine article about the Great Lakes ore carrier SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinking during a severe storm. Tragically, all of her 29 crew members were killed. His song, "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", most of the lyrics of which were taken from the article, reached #2 on the U.S. Billboard charts. Sundown and Edmund Fitzgerald continue to receive heavy airplay on many classic rock stations.

By the 1990s he was mostly touring, giving just fifty concerts a year by 1998, mainly in North America, while he released two albums in the period. In the fall of 2002, he was in Orillia when he suffered a near-fatal abdominal hemorrhage that left him in a comatose state for a short period of time. He recovered and later returned to the music business with the album Harmony and an appearance on Canadian Idol. In 2005, he made a low-key tour called, with characteristically droll humour, the "Better Late Than Never Tour".

Honours
Lightfoot has received 15 Juno Awards and been nominated for 5 Grammy Awards. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Canadian Country Music Hall Of Fame in 2001. In May 2003 was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, the country's highest honour. Lightfoot is also a member of the Order of Ontario, the highest honour in the Province of Ontario.

Trivia
"If You Could Read My Mind" was once featured on the British comedy sketch show Trigger Happy TV starring Dom Joly where it was used as a backing for Joly pretending to be a street artist sketching fake caricatures of naive tourists.

However, according to Dom Joly's audio commentary on the DVD release of Trigger Happy TV, permission to use the track on the DVD release of the show was denied by Gordon's record label.

Not wanting to give up, Dom Joly forwarded a tape of the show to Gordon himself, in the hope that Gordon would veto the record labels decision. Dom Joly recieved a response saying that Gordon did not find the show funny, and that permission to use the track was still denied.

Because of this, the track, which accompanied the 'Portrait Artist' sketch in the show, was replaced with Placebo - My Sweet Prince.

Best-selling songs
"Alberta Bound"
"Bitter Green"
"Canadian Railroad Trilogy"
"Carefree Highway"
"Cotton Jenny"
"Did She Mention My Name"
"Does Your Mother Know"
"Early Morning Rain"
"Ghost of Cape Horn"
"If You Could Read My Mind"
"I'm Not Supposed To Care"
"In My Fashion"
"Me and Bobby McGee" (first recorded version of Kris Kristofferson song)
"Protocol"
"Rainy Day People"
"Shadows"
"Sundown"
"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"
"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"
"The Pony Man"

Tribute and covers
In 1968, Canadian rockers "The Guess Who" wrote a tune about Lightfoot entitled "Lightfoot", which includes references to Lightfoot's songs.

Bob Dylan covered "Early Morning Rain" on his 1970 album Self Portrait and has been known to perform "I'm Not Supposed to Care" in live performances.

Elvis Presley also covered "Early Morning Rain" as an additional track on his 1973 live album "Aloha from Hawaii".

Anne Murray had a big Country hit with her version of "Cotton Jenny", which went #11 Country and #71 Pop.

Country artist Glen Campbell recorded a version of "If You Could Read My Mind".

The same song was also covered by Barbra Streisand on her 1971 album Stoney End.

Netherlands-based singer Viola Wills released a disco version of "If You Could Read My Mind" in 1980, an attempt that was repeated by Amber (with techno-dance group "Stars on 54") in 2000.

Elwood made a rap version of Sundown which is the first track on the 2000 album "the parlance of our time."

In 2003, a tribute album Beautiful was released featuring cover versions of Lightfoot songs by various artists include The Tragically Hip, Cowboy Junkies, Ron Sexsmith and Jesse Winchester.

Discography

Original Albums
1966 Lightfoot!
1967 The Way I Feel
1968 Did She Mention My Name
1968 Back Here on Earth
1969 Sunday Concert (live)
1970 Sit Down Young Stranger (renamed If You Could Read My Mind)
1971 Summer Side of Life
1972 Don Quixote
1972 Old Dan's Records
1974 Sundown
1975 Cold on the Shoulder
1976 Summertime Dream
1978 Endless Wire
1980 Dream Street Rose
1982 Shadows
1983 Salute
1986 East of Midnight
1993 Waiting for You
1998 A Painter Passing Through
2004 Harmony

Compilations
1968 Early Lightfoot
1970 The Best
1971 Classic Lightfoot: The Best of Gordon...
1974 The Very Best of Gordon Lightfoot
1975 Gord's Gold
1976 Early Morning Rain
1985 Songbook
1988 Gord's Gold, Vol. 2
1989 The Best of Gordon Lightfoot
1992 Original Lightfoot
1993 The United Artists Collection
1994 Lightfoot!/The Way I Feel
2002 Complete Greatest Hits

Other
1975 2 Originals of Gordon Lightfoot
1976 Gordon Lightfoot Hudba a Slova Czech release of Cold On The Shoulder[3]
1987 If You Could Read My Mind (re-issue)
1994 Sunday Concert [Bear Family] (live)
2002 Live in Reno (DVD)
2003 Sunday Concert [Capitol 2003] (live)