Gordon Lightfoot Forums - View Single Post - Billboard: Gordon Lightfoot's 10 Best Songs: Critic's Picks

Off Yonge Street · 09-03-2017, 03:57 PM

Given that the music for “Anything For Love” was not written by Lightfoot (but instead by David Foster), I always think of “Anything for Love” as a Lightfoot song with an asterisk. (By contrast, the music for all 88 songs on GL’s Songbook, all 20 songs on GL’s Complete Greatest Hits, all 24 songs on Gord’s Gold and all 18 songs on Gord’s Gold, Volume II was written by Lightfoot.)

“Anything For Love”, though, did get a ton of air time on Toronto radio stations (in contrast to all other songs that Lightfoot has since recorded).

The six songs other than "Anything For Love" that are in Chuck Dauphin's top seven are the six Lightfoot songs that made the Billboard Top 40 pop charts in the 1970s.

It is interesting to compare Chuck Dauphin’s list of the 10 best Gordon Lightfoot songs to "Canada's choices for the definitive Gordon Lightfoot top 10" that was revealed in 1988 and based on "tens of thousands of responses". (Radio stations across Canada had run a contest in which listeners where asked to send in their three favourite Lightfoot songs.)

Below is the list of "Canada's choices for the definitive Gordon Lightfoot top 10" that was revealed in 1988 (with "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" being the top Lightfoot song):

1. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
2. If You Could Read My Mind
3. Sundown
4. Canadian Railroad Trilogy
5. Early Morning Rain
6. Old Dan's Records
7. Alberta Bound
8. Beautiful
9. Rainy Day People
10. The Circle Is Small

I agree with Charlene that If You Could Read My Mind should be #1.

09-03-2017, 03:57 PM	#6
Off Yonge Street Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Toronto, Ontario Posts: 56	Re: Billboard: Gordon Lightfoot's 10 Best Songs: Critic's Picks Given that the music for “Anything For Love” was not written by Lightfoot (but instead by David Foster), I always think of “Anything for Love” as a Lightfoot song with an asterisk. (By contrast, the music for all 88 songs on GL’s Songbook, all 20 songs on GL’s Complete Greatest Hits, all 24 songs on Gord’s Gold and all 18 songs on Gord’s Gold, Volume II was written by Lightfoot.) “Anything For Love”, though, did get a ton of air time on Toronto radio stations (in contrast to all other songs that Lightfoot has since recorded). The six songs other than "Anything For Love" that are in Chuck Dauphin's top seven are the six Lightfoot songs that made the Billboard Top 40 pop charts in the 1970s. It is interesting to compare Chuck Dauphin’s list of the 10 best Gordon Lightfoot songs to "Canada's choices for the definitive Gordon Lightfoot top 10" that was revealed in 1988 and based on "tens of thousands of responses". (Radio stations across Canada had run a contest in which listeners where asked to send in their three favourite Lightfoot songs.) Below is the list of "Canada's choices for the definitive Gordon Lightfoot top 10" that was revealed in 1988 (with "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" being the top Lightfoot song): 1. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald 2. If You Could Read My Mind 3. Sundown 4. Canadian Railroad Trilogy 5. Early Morning Rain 6. Old Dan's Records 7. Alberta Bound 8. Beautiful 9. Rainy Day People 10. The Circle Is Small I agree with Charlene that If You Could Read My Mind should be #1.