b. 17 November 1938, Orillia, Ontario, Canada. Lightfoot moved to Los Angeles, USA during the 50s where he studied at Hollywood’s Westlake College of Music. Having pursued a short-lived career composing jingles for television, the singer began recording demos of his own compositions which, by 1960, owed a considerable debt to folk singers Pete Seeger and Bob Gibson. Lightfoot then returned to Canada and began performing in Toronto’s Yorktown coffee houses. His work was championed by several acts, notably Ian And Sylvia and Peter, Paul And Mary. Both recorded the enduring ‘Early Morning Rain’, which has since become a standard, while the latter unit also enjoyed a hit with his ‘For Lovin’ Me’. Other successful compositions included ‘Ribbon Of Darkness’, which Marty Robbins took to the top of the US country chart, while such renowned artists as Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis have all covered Lightfoot’s songs. Having joined the Albert Grossman management stable, the singer made his debut in 1966 with the promising Lightfoot. Subsequent releases The Way I Feel and Did She Mention My Name consolidated the artist’s undoubted promise, but it was not until 1970 that he made a significant commercial breakthrough with Sit Down Young Stranger. Producer Lenny Waronker added an edge to Lightfoot’s approach which reaped an immediate benefit with a US Top 5 hit, ‘If You Could Read My Mind’. The album also included the first recording of Kris Kristofferson’s ‘Me And Bobby McGee’.
A series of crafted albums enhanced Lightfoot’s new-found position and in 1974 the singer secured a US number 1 with the excellent ‘Sundown’. Two years later ‘The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald’ peaked at number 2, but although Lightfoot continued to record mature singer-songwriter-styled material, his increasing reliance on safer, easy-listening perspectives proved unattractive to a changing rock audience. He nonetheless retains the respect of his contemporaries, although, recording infrequently, his profile lessened quite considerably during the 80s and 90s. Lightfoot was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. In September 2002, Lightfoot suffered an abdominal haemorrhage and spent six weeks in a coma. He eventually recovered and was able to complete work on a new studio album, Harmony.
