If You Could Read My Mind (1971) 4/19/20

One summer day, Canadian singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot was sitting alone in his empty house in Toronto, suffering from the emotional trauma of going through a divorce. Before the day was over, he had poured his emotions into writing today's “Great Song of the '70s.”

In early 1970, “If You Could Read My Mind” was released as a single in Canada, where it promptly went to #1 on both the POP and Adult Contemporary charts. By 1971, it had been released to the rest of the world, and became a Top 30 hit in several countries, including the US, where it went to #1 on the Easy Listening Chart, and #5 on the Hot 100.

TRIVIA: The bitterness in the lyrics was deeply felt by Lightfoot's daughter, Ingrid, who urged him to change the line “...I'm just trying to understand the feelings that YOU lack,” to “WE lack.”

After looking at it from Ingrid's perspective, he changed the lyric and, for many years, Gordon has sung it that way in his concerts.

“If You Could read My Mind,” you'd know I think it's a “Great Song of 1970” in Canada...and 1971 everywhere else!