Daisy Jane
| "Daisy Jane" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by America | ||||
| from the album Hearts | ||||
| B-side | "Tomorrow" | |||
| Released | July 1975 | |||
| Genre | Soft rock | |||
| Length | 3:07 | |||
| Label | Warner Bros. | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Gerry Beckley | |||
| Producer(s) | George Martin | |||
| America singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Daisy Jane" is a song written by Gerry Beckley of the group America included on the 1975 America album Hearts. Issued as that album's second single — following up the #1 hit "Sister Golden Hair" — "Daisy Jane" reached #20 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the final Top 20 hit by the original three-member incarnation of America. On the Easy Listening chart the track reached #4. [1] In Canada the chart peak of "Daisy Jane" was #16 on the Pop singles chart [2] and #2 on the Adult Contemporary chart. [3]
The song's narrator indicates he's flying back to Memphis in hopes of reconnecting with the girl he left behind "to roam the city". Beckley, who wrote the song at his cottage in East Sussex, has stated: "There was no such person as Daisy Jane and I had never even been to Memphis": Beckley believes that he likely drew the idea of writing a song entitled "Daisy Jane" from the Nick Drake song "Hazey Jane". [4]
A Finnish rendering which retains the title "Daisy Jane" was recorded by Reijo Karvonen for his 1975 album Tulossa.
The Janet Jackson track "Let's Wait Awhile" from her 1985 album Control has been described as "bear[ing]striking similarities" to "Daisy Jane". [5] Reportedly on hearing "Let's Wait Awhile" on a car radio in 1987 - the track then being a current single - the road manager for the group America pulled over at a phone booth to alert Gerry Beckley to the evident debt of Jackson's track to Beckley's composition: eventually Beckley reached an out of court settlement with Jackson and her co-writers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis thus preempting litigation for plagiarism. [6] (The 2001 Janet Jackson album All for You featured the track "Someone to Call My Lover" which overtly sampled the America hit "Ventura Highway" whose composer Dewey Bunnell received a co-write credit for Jackson's song.) [5]
Chart performance
| Weekly charts | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Chart (1975) | Peak position | ||
| Canada (RPM) | Top Singles[2] | 16 | |
| Adult Contemporary[3] | 2 | ||
| US | Billboard Hot 100 | 20 | |
| Billboard Easy Listening | 4 | ||
| Cash Box Top 100 | 27 | ||
| Radio & Records | 16 | ||
| Record World | 23 | ||
| Year-end charts | |
|---|---|
| Chart (1975) | Rank |
| Canada[7] | 140 |
| US (Joel Whitburn's Pop Annual)[8] | 167 |
References
- ↑ "Daisy Jane (song by America) ••• Music VF, US & UK hits charts". Musicvf.com. 1975-07-19. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
- 1 2 "Image : RPM Weekly - Library and Archives Canada". Bac-lac.gc.ca. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
- 1 2 "Image : RPM Weekly - Library and Archives Canada". Bac-lac.gc.ca. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
- ↑ "Music Review: America – Here and Now". BlogCritics.org. Retrieved August 22, 2013.
- 1 2 Shields, Damien (2015). Xscape Origins: the songs and stories Michael Jackson left behind. Canton OH: Modegy LLC. ISBN 978-0986199103.
- ↑ http://www.nyartsmagazine.com/?p=21292
- ↑ "Image : RPM Weekly - Library and Archives Canada". Bac-lac.gc.ca. Archived from the original on 2016-10-06. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
- ↑ Whitburn, Joel (1999). Pop Annual. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. ISBN 0-89820-142-X.
