Gordon
Lightfoot has recorded 21 albums and has five Grammy nominations. His songs
have been aired regularly for over 50 years, earning him Radio Singles Chart
Positions in North America achieved by few others. Lightfoot’s radio hits in
the USA have earned Five #1s, Five Top 10s, and Thirteen Top 40 hits. In
Canada, he has earned Sixteen #1s, Eighteen Top 10s, and Twenty One Top 40
hits.
Aside from his success in writing,
singing, and performing his own songs, Lightfoot has found fortune in having
his songs recorded and performed by other great artists including Bob Dylan,
Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Jr., Marty Robbins, Jerry Lee Lewis,
Judy Collins, Johnny Mathis, Anne Murray, Olivia Newton-John, Sarah
McLachlan, Barbra Streisand, Peter Paul & Mary, Harry Belafonte,
Jane’s Addiction, Richie Havens, Glen Campbell, Toby Keith, and George Hamilton
IV.
In June of 2012, Lightfoot’s
legacy was further enhanced when he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of
Fame. Lightfoot was honored for his role in defining the folk-pop sound of the
1960s and ’70s. Other impressive inductees who make up the roster enshrined in
the Songwriters Hall of Fame include Barry Mann, Jerry Leiber, and Mike
Stoller, Hal David and Burt Bacharach, John Fogerty, Bob Dylan, Isaac Hayes,
Carole King, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Sir Elton John, Bernie Taupin, Brian
Wilson, James Taylor, James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Jim Croce, Phil Collins,
Loretta Lynn, Jimmy Webb, Van Morrison, Kris Kristofferson, Dolly Parton, Diane
Warren, Garth Brooks, Leon Russell, and Leonard Cohen.
In his native Canada, Lightfoot
has been decorated with the highest honors bestowed to a civilian including the
Governor’s General Award and the Companion to the Order of Canada honor of
merit. He has also won 17 Juno Awards – Canada’s equivalent to the Grammy
Awards. Gordon is a member of Canada’s Walk of Fame and The Canadian
Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2007, Canada Post honored him by issuing an
official Gordon Lightfoot postage stamp. Lightfoot is also in
the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Country Music Hall of
Fame. Gordon Lightfoot is an indelible part of the Canadian
national spirit and is regarded as perhaps the most prolific and greatest
Canadian singer-songwriter of all time.
-Garde Arts Center
Happy Birthday Balladeer.
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