Help Me (Joni Mitchell song)

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"Help Me" is the title of a Joni Mitchell love song that she first recorded for the 1974 album Court and Spark. The influence of this song (which is rich in Mitchell's special mix of folk music and jazz) can be heard in Prince's song "Ballad of Dorothy Parker" (from his Sign 'O' the Times album). Multiple artists have covered this song such as Wynonna (covered on the 2000 album: New Day Dawning), Mandy Moore on her 2003 album Coverage k.d. lang (covered on the 2004 album: Hymns of the 49th Parallel as a bonus track), Nicola Kramer and Domu (Sonar Kollektiv, 2004) and Ryan Adams (covered the song during a solo show in 2005).

The 2006 365 Tunes Calendar by Page-a-Day says the following about this song, which was the song of the day on Tuesday, November 7, 2006: "Sometimes high-flown romanticism simmers and sometimes it explodes. This tune does both. It simmers on the verses, and on the bridge-when Joni and her backing singers repeat "Didn't it feel good?"-it erupts into a convergence of guitars, woodwinds, and sax that hits your ear like Pop Rocks in your mouth, tangy bursts of tonal coor fizzing around everywhere. Like most of Mitchell's best work, there's a sense of abandon within strictly defined patterns."

The song is ranked #282 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

On the charts, "Help Me" was Joni Mitchell's biggest hit single; in the spring of 1974, it became her only top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at #7, and also hit number one on the Adult Contemporary singles chart. The song was used in the South Park episode "Cartman Sucks," sung by the character Butters.