Tuesday 6 October 2020

UK Number 40s: Gordon Lightfoot - The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald (1977)


Gordon Lightfoot may not be a name familiar to the masses, but with this YouTube video alone having 55 million views at the time of writing, there's certainly no shortage of people who know and enjoy his music.

To give you an idea of how big that number is, last weeks number 40 which I said was probably the best known number 40 to feature so far had barely over a million views. The fact this record was a number one in his native Canada and an American number two probably helps too.

This was the last of 3 Top 40 hits for Gordon Lightfoot, who's UK chart career isn't perhaps the best reflection of his popularity. His first hit, which was his biggest hit, came in 1971 with "If You Could Read My Mind". This is the one most people are likely to know, but it only reached number 30.

His 2nd hit came 3 years later with "Sundown", which made number 33. Then he'd wait another 3 years for this record to chart.

All 3 of his UK hits were number ones in Canada and "Sundown" was an American number one. Therefore I don't think he would have been too concerned about his lack of success in the UK charts.

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