Lightfoot's popularity peaked in the mid-1970s when both his single and album 'Sundown' topped Billboard — his first and only time doing so.
Updated on: May 1, 2023 / 10:30 PMGordon Lightfoot, Canada's legendary folk singer-songwriter whose hits including"Early Morning Rain" and"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" told a tale of Canadian identity that was exported worldwide, died on Monday. He was 84.
"I simply write the songs about where I am and where I'm from," he once said."I take situations and write poems about them." He began singing in his church choir and dreamed of becoming a jazz musician. At age 13, the soprano won a talent contest at the Kiwanis Music Festival, held at Toronto's Massey Hall.
Life in Hollywood wasn't a good fit, however, and it wasn't long before Lightfoot returned to Canada. He pledged to move to Toronto to pursue his musical ambitions, taking any job available, including a position at a bank before landing a gig as a square dancer on CBC's"Country Hoedown." By 1964, he was garnering positive word-of-mouth around town and audiences were starting to gather in growing numbers. By the next year, Lightfoot's song"I'm Not Sayin'" was a hit in Canada, which helped spread his name in the United States.
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