Tuesday 3 May 2011

Annie's Song - John Denver: 1974

"Annie's Song" is a song recorded and written by Singer Songwriter, John Denver. It was his second number-one song in the United States, occupying that spot for two weeks in July 1974. "Annie's Song" also went to number one on the Easy Listening chart. It went to number one in the United Kingdom, where it was Denver's only major hit single (many of Denver's American hits were more familiar in the UK through cover versions by other artists).

"Annie's Song" was written as an ode to Denver's then-wife, Annie Denver (née Martell). Denver "wrote this song in about ten-and-a-half minutes one day on a ski lift" to the top of Ajax Mountain in Aspen, Colorado, as the physical exhilaration of having "just skied down a very difficult run" and the feeling of total immersion in the beauty of the colors and sounds that filled all senses inspired him to think about his wife.

"Denver paid loving tribute to his wife by dedicating this album to her, and with 'Annie's Song,' a number one hit in July '74, Annie Denver recalls the beginnings: 'It was written after John and I had gone through a pretty intense time together and things were pretty good for us. He left to go skiing and he got on the Ajax chair on Aspen mountain and the song just came to him. He skied down and came home and wrote it down... Initially it was a love song and it was given to me through him, and yet for him it became a bit like a prayer.'

"'The first time I heard "Annie's Song," I told John it had the same melody as Tscahikovsky's "Fifty Symphony, Second Movement" says Okun. 'He walked over to the piano, sat for an hour and came back, and the only thing remaining from Tschaikovsky was the first five notes. It was fantastic.'"

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