Lightfoot was doing well in Canada for a while, but it was “If You Could Read My Mind” from 1970 that piqued interest in his music among listeners down south. The song was a big US hit that peaked at ...

Gordon Lightfoot's music had already won over his native Canada. His American breakthrough came with an intensely personal ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Hugh McIntyre covers music, with a focus on the global charts. Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind" breaks back into the ...

“The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down, of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee” - From “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” First come the mournful notes - an electric guitar layered over a ...

There are few songs that stick with us like a snapshot of the biggest moments of our lives, especially a breakup anthem. Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind" may have been written in 1970, ...

"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" was released in 1976, less than a year after the ship sank in Lake Superior. Gordon Lightfoot’s song peaked at number two on the Billboard chart that same year.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. On paper, it should never have been a hit record. But despite the odds stacked against it — the 6-minute length, the somber ...

Without Gordon Lightfoot’s ballad, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald might have faded into history alongside thousands of other Great Lakes wrecks. He was inspired to write the song after reading the first ...