Gordon Lightfoot read an article in 'Newsweek' magazine in November of 1974 about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald earlier that month, wrote a song commemorating that event, and it topped the charts almost exactly one year later.

Gordon Lightfoot considers it his finest work, and I can see why. It's a haunting song about a ship that sank in a huge storm while crossing Lake Superior, taking with her 29 lives. The ship was 728 feet long, but apparently the waves which were 35 feet high, finally took their toll on the 17 year old vessel. No radio distress call was ever given.

The imagery that Lightfoot conjures up in his words puts you on that ship in it's final moments, as well as in the hearts of the victim's loved ones.

I remember listening to it over and over, much like listening to an audio book so I could get the story. A lot of other people did as well, for it hit #1 in Canada and #2 in the US in the Fall of 1976.

 

 

Actually it hit #1 in Canada on this date, but Gordon is Canadian, so close enough

 

"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is a song written, composed and performed by the Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot to commemorate the sinking of the bulk carrierSS Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. Lightfoot drew his inspiration from Newsweek 's article on the event, "The Cruelest Month," which it published in its November 24, 1975, issue.[1] Lightfoot considers this song to be his finest work.[2]

The ballad originally appeared on Lightfoot's 1976 album, Summertime Dream, and he later released it as a single. The release hit #1 in his native Canada (on the RPM national singles survey) on November 20, 1976, almost exactly one year after the appearance of the article that inspired it.[3] In the United States, the single hit #1 in Cash Box and #2 on the BillboardHot 100 chart, making it Lightfoot's second most successful single - behind "Sundown,". "Edmund Fitzgerald" peaked at #40 in the UK Singles Chart.

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