1975 Gordon Lightfoot – Rainy Day People

1975 Gordon Lightfoot – Rainy Day People  

Gordon Lightfoot grew up in Ontario, Canada, and began singing in front of audiences while still in grade school. A choir master at a local church helped coach his singing, and after learning to play the piano, he taught himself to play drums. He earned college scholarships at colleges with music programs for both his musical ability and athletic accomplishments in track sports and football.

In 1958, Gordon moved to California and studied jazz composition and orchestration at a school favored by many Canadian musicians. While studying, he also recorded demos and wrote and recorded jingles.

He returned to Toronto in 1960 and joined The Singin’ Swingin’ Eight, performing on CBC TV’s Country Hoedown. Chet Atkins produced a few singles for Gordon and he began getting airplay and chart action in Canada.

 Peter, Paul and Mary recorded two songs Gordon wrote, Early Mornin’ Rain and For Lovin’ Me and numerous prominent musicians recorded songs written by Gordon. His career took off in 1970 with the release of his first chart-topping single, If You Could Read My Mind (it reached #1 in Canada, #5 on the Hot 100, and #1 on the US Adult Contemporary chart, and remains my favorite of all his songs).

Beginning in 1974 with the release of Sundown, three of Gordon’s four next singles peaked at the top of the Adult Contemporary chart and reached the top ten on the Hot 100. Rainy Day People only reached #26 on the Hot 100 in 1975, but it was one of the three singles that topped the Adult Contemporary chart.

Gordon seldom reached the US charts after 1977, but continued scoring top ten hits in Canada through 1986.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Lightfoot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Lightfoot_discography#1970s_2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainy_Day_People

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