If You Could Read My Mind (song)

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For the album of the same name, see Sit Down Young Stranger.

"If You Could Read My Mind" is a song by Gordon Lightfoot. It was his first recording to appear on the American music charts, reaching #5 on the Billboard chart in January 1971. Lightfoot has cited his divorce for inspiring the lyrics.[1]

This song first appeared on the Lightfoot's 1970 album Sit Down Young Stranger. The success of the single led Lightfoot's label, Reprise Records, to retitle the album after the song. The song reached #1 on Billboard's Easy Listening charts.

The song has been covered by many artists, including Don McLean, Kalan Porter, Olivia Newton-John, Barbra Streisand, Johnny Cash, Liza Minnelli, Glen Campbell, Gene Clark, Viola Wills and the house music collective Stars on 54.

It was also used in the motion pictures including:

And on television :

"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 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 Lightfoot's record label. Not wanting to give up, Joly forwarded a tape of the show to Lightfoot himself, in the hope that Lightfoot would veto the record label's decision. Joly received a response saying that Lightfoot 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 "My Sweet Prince" by Placebo.

[edit] Other versions

  • Johnny Cash released a cover album (American V: A Hundred Highways, 2006). "If You Could Read My Mind" was the fourth track on that album.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Gordon Lightfoot 'still out there'" South Coast Today (Martin Griffith, Associated Press) 4-Dec-2000

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Gordon Lightfoot discography
Main albums
Lightfoot! (1966) • The Way I Feel (1967) • Did She Mention My Name (1968) • Back Here on Earth (1968) • Sunday Concert (1969) • Sit Down Young Stranger (1970) • Summer Side of Life (1971) • Don Quixote (1972) • Old Dan's Records (1972) • Sundown (1974) • Cold on the Shoulder (1975) • Summertime Dream (1976) • Endless Wire (1978) • Dream Street Rose (1980) • Shadows (1982) • Salute (1983) • East of Midnight (1986) • Waiting for You (1993) • A Painter Passing Through (1998) • Harmony (2004)
Main Compilations
Gord's Gold (1975) • Gord's Gold, Vol. 2 (1988) • Songbook (1999) • Complete Greatest Hits (2002)
Notable Singles
"Canadian Railroad Trilogy" (1967) • "If You Could Read My Mind" (1970) • "Sundown" (1974) • "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" (1976)