Home‎ > ‎The Pantheon‎ > ‎Greatly Appreciated Items‎ > ‎

John Denver

JOHN DENVER
 
 
John Denver   (born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr.; December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997) was an American singer-songwriter, actor, activist and humanitarian, whose greatest commercial success was as a solo singer, starting in the 1970s.  He was one of the most popular acoustic artists of the decade and one of its best-selling artists.  Throughout his life, Denver recorded and released approximately 300 songs, about 200 of which he composed, with total sales of over 33 million.  Denver further starred in films and several notable television specials in the 1970s and 1980s.  He was known for his love of the state of Colorado, and he lived in Aspen, Colorado, for much of his life.  He was named Poet Laureate of the state in 1974.  The Colorado state legislature also adopted “Rocky Mountain High” as one of its state songs in 2007.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

By now, the parade of early deaths of beloved musicians is long indeed.  Not a few of these losses have occurred in small airplane crashes:  Glenn Miller, John Denver, Jim Reeves, Otis Redding, Jim Croce, Rick Nelson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Aaliyah, and three bandmembers in Lynyrd Skynyrd:  Ronnie van Zant, Stevie Gaines, and Cassie Gaines.  There is even a parallel to “The Day the Music Died” in country music, when Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins all died in a plane crash on March 5, 1963. 

 

(June 2013/1)

 

*       *       *

 

Wikipedia lists an almost completely different group of artists in that article (as opposed to those listed above who were backed by Glen Campbell in particular):  “Notable artists employing the Wrecking Crew’s talents included Nancy Sinatra, Bobby Vee, the Partridge Family, the Mamas and the Papas, the Carpenters, the 5th Dimension, John Denver, the Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel, the Grass Roots, and Nat King Cole.” 

 

(February 2015)

 
*       *       *
 
While attracting little attention initially, the James Taylor song “Carolina in My Mind” was covered frequently not long after its release. North Carolina country music recording artist George Hamilton IV had some success with his version of “Carolina in My Mind” in 1969. Probably the best known version of the song other than Taylor’s is that of Melanie, who included “Carolina in My Mind” on her classic 1970 album, Candles in the Rain. Other recordings of the song have been made by the Everly Brothers, Evie Sands, John Denver, and Dawn (later known as Tony Orlando and Dawn). Glen Campbell and Linda Ronstadt performed a duet of the song on his TV show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour; the song was ultimately released in the 2007 video Good Times Again.
 
(August 2015)
* * *
Why “We’re Not Gonna Take It” showed up at all among the Filthy Fifteen is a real puzzler, but it brought out the ire of Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, who provided the most memorable testimony at the U. S. Senate hearing that he made even more effective by dressing up for the occasion. The other two musicians who testified were Frank Zappa – at least one of the F15 alumni praised him as running interference for the whole rock industry – and John Denver. This wide-ranging trio gives some indication as to how offended rock musicians were in turn about the whole offending-lyrics business.
 
(June 2016)