Tiny Wings Day Song
| 'Snowbird' | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Anne Murray | ||||
| from the album This Way Is My Way | ||||
| B-side | 'Just Bidin' My Time' | |||
| Released | June 1970 | |||
| Format | 7' | |||
| Recorded | 1969 | |||
| Genre | Soft rock[1] | |||
| Length | 2:10 | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Gene MacLellan | |||
| Producer(s) | Brian Ahern | |||
| Anne Murray singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
'Snowbird' is a song by the Canadian songwriter Gene MacLellan. Though it has been recorded by many performers (including Bing Crosby, Lynn Anderson, and Elvis Presley), it is best known through Anne Murray's 1969 recording, which—after appearing as an album track in mid-1969—was eventually released as a single in the summer of 1970. It was a No. 2 hit on Canada's pop chart and went to No. 1 on both the Canadian adult contemporary and country charts. The song reached No. 8 on the U.S. pop singles chart, spent six weeks at No. 1 on the U.S. adult contemporary chart, and became a surprise Top 10 U.S. country hit as well. It was certified as a gold single by the RIAA, the first American Gold record ever awarded to a Canadian solo female artist.[2] The song peaked at No. 23 on the UK Singles Chart. In 2003 it was an inaugural song inductee of the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.[3]
“All Things Bright and Beautiful” is a Christian hymn. The words are by Cecil Frances Alexander and were first published in her Hymns for Little Children. Lyrics to 'Snowbird' by Anne Murray. Beneath this snowy mantle cold and clean The unborn grass lies waiting For its coat to turn to green The snowbird sings the song he always sings And speaks to me of flowers.
Anne Murray and Gene MacLellan had met while both were regulars on the CBC television series Singalong Jubilee and Murray recorded two of MacLellan's compositions, 'Snowbird' and 'Biding My Time', for her first major label album release, This Way Is My Way, in 1969. Murray would recall: 'Gene told me he wrote ['Snowbird'] in twenty minutes while walking on a beach in PEI.' [4]
The theme and approach broadly resemble that of the earlier hits 'Message to Michael' (a.k.a. 'Kentucky Bluebird' in hit versions by Lou Johnson and Adam Faith) and 'Yellow Bird' in contrasting the narrator's being stranded in the place of their heartache to the bird's ability to just up and fly away. 'Snowbird' sold well over a million copies and was recently picked as 19th on the 50 Tracks: The Canadian Version list, a partially populist approach to defining the most influential songs by Canadians.
Chart performance[edit]
Weekly singles charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
Other versions[edit]
Gene MacLellan's own recording of 'Snowbird' on his 1970 album Street Corner Preacher features an additional verse to the song's standard two verse format.
Archived from on February 14, 2009. December 16, 2008. Wheelman game download. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
In 2007, Murray remade 'Snowbird' for her Anne Murray Duets: Friends & Legends album; the song being rendered as a duet with Sarah Brightman.
1970
- Lynn Anderson - album Rose Garden
- Perry Como - album It's Impossible
- Annette Klingenberg (da) (as 'Lille Sangfugl')
- Anna-Lena Löfgren (as 'Pröva Dina Vingar')
- Loretta Lynn - album Coal Miner's Daughter
- Gene MacLellan - album Gene MacLellan
- Lize Marke (as 'Zeemeeuw')
- The Settlers, released as a single only in Italy as the A-side of 'Go North' by Richard Barnes and Scandinavia
- Liv Maessen (No. 13 in Australia)
- Jean Shepard - album Here & Now
- Andy Williams - album The Andy Williams Show
- Slim Whitman - album Guess Who
1971
- Chet Atkins - album For the Good Times winner of Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance
- Ossie Scott - single released as the B-side of 'Mad Mad Ivy' by Gladstone Anderson & Mudies All Stars
- Burl Ives - album Time
- Danny Davis & The Nashville Brass - album Somethin' Else
- Daliah Lavi (as 'Wie Die Schwalben') - album Daliah Lavi
- Jo Jo Bennett All Stars - single released as the B-side of 'Drifter' by I-Roy and Dennis Walks
- Dennis Walks - released as a single only in the United States and Jamaica
- Päivi Paunu (as 'Lumilintu') - album Oi niitä aikoja : kootut levytykset 1966-71
- Elvis Presley - album Elvis Country (I'm 10,000 Years Old)
- Hank Snow - album Award Winners
- Honey West - album The Moods Of My Man
- Dottie West - album Careless Hands
1972
- Chris Connor - album Sketches
- Bing Crosby - album Bing 'n' Basie.
- Billie Jo Spears - album Just Singin'
1974
- Wanda Jackson - album When It's Time to Fall in Love Again
1975
- Doc Watson - album Two Days in November
1986
- Gerard Cox - (as 'Die laaielichter')
1987
- Bles Bridges - album Fight For Love
1989
- Birthe Kjaer (as 'Sangfugl') - album Vi Maler Byen Rød
1992
- Helinä Ilkka (fi) (as 'Lumilintu') - album Jää vielä aamuun
2001
- Rita MacNeil - album Music of a Thousand Nights
- Dana Winner - album Unforgettable
2011
Defend your life imdb. Black Panther(2012, PG) Chadwick Boseman stars as T'Challa, or the illustrious Black Panther-a powerful warrior and king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda. Action-packed and moving, this movie will have you focusing on the good that comes when everyone unites in a mission. When his rightful place as king is challenged by a forceful enemy, he is drawn into a conflict that could put his entire people in danger. Rotten Tomatoes gives this movie a 93%.11.
- Catherine MacLellan - album 'Silhouette'
Year?
- Anne Marie Kvien (no) (as 'Gjør Din Drøm Til Virkelighet')
In popular culture[edit]
- Anne Murray performed the song on episode 4.15 of The Muppet Show, where she kept getting interrupted by a badly punning dodo.
- In the Family Guy episode 'Chris Cross', Brian and Stewie spend the third act arguing about the meaning of the song. When they travel to Canada to meet Murray in an attempt to ascertain its true meaning, Stewie becomes upset when he learns she did not write the song and holds Murray hostage.
- DTV Disney set the song to the Pluto short, Cold Storage.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^'Soft Rock Music Songs'. AllMusic.
- ^'RIAA - Recording Industry Association of America'. Archived from the original on 2012-07-20.
- ^'Snowbird by Anne Murray Songfacts'. Songfacts.com. Retrieved 2016-10-03.
- ^'Bio'. Gene MacLellan. Retrieved 2016-10-03.
- ^'RPM Country Tracks for August 22, 1970'. RPM. Archived from the original on 2012-10-19. Retrieved 11 October 2010.
- ^'RPM Top Singles for September 26, 1970'. RPM. Archived from the original on 2012-10-19. Retrieved 11 October 2010.
- ^'Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada'. Collectionscanada.gc.ca. 1970-11-07. Retrieved 2019-02-22.
- ^'The Irish Charts – Search Results – Snowbird'. Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved February 16, 2019.
- ^'flavour of new zealand - search listener'. Flavourofnz.co.nz. Retrieved 2016-10-03.
- ^'Anne Murray Chart History (Hot Country Songs)'. Billboard.
- ^'Anne Murray Chart History (Hot 100)'. Billboard.
- ^[1][dead link]
- ^'Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada'. collectionscanada.gc.ca.
- ^'Top 100 Hits of 1970/Top 100 Songs of 1970'. Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved 2016-10-03.
- ^'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-07-27.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
External links[edit]
- Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
- Listen to 'Snowbird' on YouTube