The life I love is making music with my friends, and I can't wait to...be late again (double yikes, more than a week)....
My introduction to this week's tune was twofold--the first was when it came out back in the day, though I wouldn't say that it stuck with me from then. The second was after my Dad passed away--he had given me all of his records before he died, and I set out to listen to them all. I never made it through all of them (or even close), but I did find a few new (to me) gems along the way. One of them was the greatest hits of this week's artist, which I enjoyed thoroughly, and was reintroduced to our song of the week. This time it did stick with me...for good....
Anne Murray was born in Springhill, Nova Scotia in 1945, and began her professional career in music at the ripe old age of twenty-two in 1967. She would have a hit in her native Canada from her debut album, and her first hit in America from her second album. Murray would find considerable chart success through the late eighties and would continue to release albums and tour through 2008. Murray sang "O Canada" at the first American League game in Canada (Toronto), as well as singing it at the first World Series game in Canada (ditto). She won four Grammys, twenty-six Juno Awards, and has been inducted in four Canadian Halls of Fame (Songwriting, Broadcast, Juno, and Country Music). For her career, Murray released thirty-three studio albums (with five #1's in Canada and three more top five, as well as five top forty here in the States), one live album, twenty compilations, eight Christmas albums, and seventy-six singles (with twenty-two [!] hitting number one in Canada, and one here in the U.S.). After more than forty years of performing, Murray retired in 2008 and as of yet says she has never regretted it.
"Snowbird" was the first single from Murray's 1969 release, the rather directionally entitled This Way Is My Way. The song would be her first #1 hit in Canada and peaked at #8 (with a bullet!) in America. The album reached #13 in the Great White North but did not chart in the United States.
Fun Fact: Murray was the first female solo performer to receive a gold record from the RIAA in the United States, for, surprise, surprise, this week's featured tune.
Regular readers (all three of you) will recall that emaycee is a big fan of female vocalists, and when you add to that a catchy pop tune you have another Friday Night Jukebox post. Written by Gene MacLellan, "Songbird" tells the tale of a young woman who has had her heart broken and wants to escape both her unfaithful lover and the pain by flying away with the titular songbird. MacLellan's lyrics are really a cut above, juxtaposing the broken heart with the cold Canadian winters, and a lot of nature imagery throughout adds to the song's sorrowful ambiance (which isn't too often your usual top forty fare). Murray makes the most of her alto range, and brings heartfelt emotion to her vocals, capturing well the woman's pain and desire for it all just to go away. And all of this in two minutes and fourteen seconds. Add another sweet piece of pop pie to the annals of Friday Night Jukebox....
Lyric Sheet: "Spread your tiny wings and fly away/And take the snow back with you where it came from on that day/The one I love forever is untrue/And if I could you know that I would fly away with you..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump
Peace,
emaycee
