Gordon Lightfoot - The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald

[appalachiablue]

- SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in Lake Superior during a storm on November 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29 men. When launched on June 7, 1958, she was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes, and she remains the largest to have sunk there. She was located in deep water on November 14, 1975, by a U.S. Navy aircraft detecting magnetic anomalies, and found soon afterwards to be in two large pieces.

For 17 years, Edmund Fitzgerald carried taconite iron ore from mines near Duluth, Minnesota, to iron works in Detroit, Toledo, and other Great Lakes ports. As a workhorse, she set seasonal haul records six times, often breaking her own record...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Edmund_Fitzgerald



- SS Edmund Fitzgerald in 1971.

[Ruby Zee]

1. Lightfoot documentary

There's a really good documentary on Gordon Lightfoot on Prime Video. I don't know how old it is but it just appeared in my list.

[appalachiablue]

2. Thanks, I'll take a look.

[ProfessorGAC]

3. When That Was A Big Hit...

...I swear everyone under 30 knew all the words.
It could come on the jukebox in a bar & by the middle of the third line everyone in the joint was singing it.
And, I didn't experience it once.
Of course, we were going to the same 3 or 4 places, but still.

[Shermann]

4. I'm old enough to remember that

It really doesn't fit the mold of a hit song. I don't think the music business is currently capable of repeating it.

[ProfessorGAC]

5. I'm Sure You're Correct

Somehow, I can't see a hit coming from the format of a sea shanty.
Yet, Gordon had a career maker. It never reached #1, it got to 9, but it is his legacy song.
BTW: he had four #1 hits. Sundown, If You Could Read My Mind, Rainy Day People & Carefree Highway.
None spent more than a few weeks at #1, but 4 number ones is 4 number ones.
Until I looked it up, I never would have guessed that Edmund Fitzgerald didn't hit #1.