Me and Bobby McGee
Encyclopedia
"Me and Bobby McGee" is a song written by Kris Kristofferson
Kris Kristofferson
Kristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson is an American musician, actor, and writer. He is known for hits such as "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night"...

 and Fred Foster
Fred Foster
Fred Foster is an American songwriter, record producer, and founder of Monument Records.-Biography:...

, originally performed by Roger Miller
Roger Miller
Roger Dean Miller was an American singer, songwriter, musician and actor, best known for his honky tonk-influenced novelty songs...

. Others performed the song later, including Kristofferson himself, and Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...

 who topped the U.S. singles chart
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 with the song in 1971 after her death, making the song the second posthumous number-one single in U.S. chart history after "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay
(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay
" The Dock of the Bay" is a song co-written by soul singer Otis Redding and guitarist Steve Cropper. It was first recorded by Otis Redding in 1967, just days before his death. It was released posthumously on Stax Records' Volt label in 1968, becoming the first posthumous number-one single in U.S...

" by Otis Redding
Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul and R&B...

.

Recordings and notable performances

Roger Miller was the first artist to have a hit with the song, peaking with it at No. 12 on the US country chart in 1969. Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. is a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music, and has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s...

's version hit No. 13 on the pop chart and No. 1 country in his native Canada in 1970. Lightfoot sang the song after a detailed tribute to Kris Kristofferson in a CBC broadcast from the summer 1969 Charlottetown Festival
Charlottetown Festival
The Charlottetown Festival is a seasonal Canadian musical theatre festival which runs from late May to mid-October every year since 1965.Named after its host city, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, since its inception the festival has showcased Canada's most popular and longest-running musical,...

. In his introduction, Lightfoot referred to the Miller version and said he intended to record it himself "the way it should be done." In a 2008 autobiography, Don Reid and Harold Reid
Harold Reid
Harold Reid is the former bass singer for the country vocal group The Statler Brothers. He wrote or co-wrote 17 songs that were hit singles for the group, including "Bed of Rose's" and the #1 hit "Do You Know You Are My Sunshine." The latter was written with his younger brother, Don Reid, the lead...

 of the Statler Brothers
Statler Brothers
The Statler Brothers were an American country music vocal group founded in 1955 in Staunton, Virginia.Originally performing gospel music at local churches, the group billed themselves as The Four Star Quartet, and later The Kingsmen...

 say Kristofferson promised it to them, but when they later inquired about recording it, they learned Miller had already cut the song. The Reids say there were no hard feelings, and were happy about Miller's success with the song. The song was later included on a Statler Brothers album, and was not released as a single.

Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...

 also covered the song for inclusion on her Pearl
Pearl (album)
-Personnel:* Janis Joplin – vocals, guitar on "Me and Bobby McGee"* Richard Bell – piano* Ken Pearson – organ* John Till – electric guitar* Brad Campbell – bass guitar* Clark Pierson – drums-Additional personnel:...

album only a few days before her death in October 1970. Kristofferson had sung the song for Joplin, and singer Bob Neuwirth
Bob Neuwirth
Bob Neuwirth is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and visual artist. A mainstay of the early 1960s Cambridge, Massachusetts, folk scene, he subsequently became a friend and associate of Bob Dylan alongside whom he appears in D.A...

 taught it to her. Kristofferson, however, did not know she had covered it until after her death (the first time he heard it was the day after she died). Joplin's version topped the charts to become her only number one single and only the second posthumous number one single in rock & roll history (the first was "(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay
(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay
" The Dock of the Bay" is a song co-written by soul singer Otis Redding and guitarist Steve Cropper. It was first recorded by Otis Redding in 1967, just days before his death. It was released posthumously on Stax Records' Volt label in 1968, becoming the first posthumous number-one single in U.S...

" by Otis Redding
Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul and R&B...

). In 2004, the Janis Joplin version of this song was ranked No. 148 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" was the cover story of a special issue of Rolling Stone, issue number 963, published December 9, 2004, a year after the magazine published its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time"....

.

Kristofferson performed the song live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970
Isle of Wight Festival 1970
The 1970 Isle of Wight Festival was held between 26 and 31 August 1970 at East Afton Farm an area on the western side of the Isle of Wight. It was the last of three consecutive music festivals to take place on the island between 1968 and 1970 and widely acknowledged as the largest musical event of...

 and a CD and DVD of the event were issued 30 years later as Message to Love: The Isle of Wight Festival 1970.

The Janis Joplin version was used prominently in the epilogue of Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Rainer Werner Maria Fassbinder was a German movie director, screenwriter and actor. He is considered one of the most important representatives of the New German Cinema.He maintained a frenetic pace in film-making...

's epic film of Berlin Alexanderplatz
Berlin Alexanderplatz (television)
Berlin Alexanderplatz, originally broadcast in 1980, is a 14-part television film adapted and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder from the Alfred Döblin novel of the same name, and stars Günter Lamprecht, Hanna Schygulla, Barbara Sukowa, Elisabeth Trissenaar and Gottfried John...

.

The Grateful Dead regularly covered the song between 1970 and 1974 and a few more times in 1981. Bob Weir's cover seems to be a combination of Kristofferson's and Joplin's versions.

Story

In the original version of the song, Bobby is a woman; Janis Joplin, who was a lover and a friend of Kristofferson's from the beginning of her career to her death, changed the sex and a few of the lyrics in her cover. Kristofferson states he did not write this song for her, but the song is associated with her. Especially, he has said, in the line, "Somewhere near Salinas
Salinas, California
Salinas is the county seat and the largest municipality of Monterey County, California. Salinas is located east-southeast of the mouth of the Salinas River, at an elevation of about 52 feet above sea level. The population was 150,441 at the 2010 census...

, Lord, I let her slip away." In a conversation with director Monte Hellman
Monte Hellman
Monte Hellman is an American film director, producer, and film editor.Hellman is among a group of directing talent mentored by Roger Corman, who produced several of the director's early films...

 called "Somewhere Near Salinas", available in the supplements to the Two-Lane Blacktop
Two-Lane Blacktop
Two-Lane Blacktop is a 1971 road movie directed by Monte Hellman, starring singer-songwriter James Taylor, Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, Warren Oates, and Laurie Bird. Esquire magazine declared the film its movie of the year for 1971, and even published the entire screenplay in its April, 1971...

Criterion Collection DVD release (a film in which Kristofferson's version is used on the soundtrack), Kristofferson states that the film La Strada
La Strada (film)
La Strada is a 1954 Italian neorealist drama directed by Federico Fellini in which a naïve young woman is sold to a brutish man and goes on the road as a part of his itinerant show....

was an inspiration for the song and remarks on the irony of how a song inspired by a classic "road movie
Road movie
A road movie is a film genre in which the main character or characters leave home to travel from place to place. They usually leave home to escape their current lives.-History:...

" should come to be used in another.

Chart positions (Roger Miller version)

Chart (1969) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles 12
U.S. Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 22
Canadian RPM Country Tracks 3

Selected list of recorded versions

  • 1969 Roger Miller
    Roger Miller
    Roger Dean Miller was an American singer, songwriter, musician and actor, best known for his honky tonk-influenced novelty songs...

     on the album Roger Miller 1970
  • 1969 Kenny Rogers & The First Edition on the album Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town
    Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town (album)
    Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town is the fourth album by the group The First Edition. This was the first album to credit the group as Kenny Rogers & the First Edition.-Track listing:#"Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town"...

  • 1970 Ramblin' Jack Elliott
    Ramblin' Jack Elliott
    Ramblin' Jack Elliott is an American folk singer and performer.-Life and career:Elliot Charles Adnopoz was born in Brooklyn, New York to Jewish parents in 1931. Elliott grew up inspired by the rodeos at Madison Square Garden, and wanted to be a cowboy...

     on the album Bull Durham Sacks & Railroad Tracks
    Bull Durham Sacks & Railroad Tracks
    Bull Durham Sacks & Railroad Tracks is an album by American folk musician Ramblin' Jack Elliott, released in 1970. It was his second, and last, release on the Reprise label. Elliott did not release another studio album for eleven years.-Reception:...

  • 1970 Gordon Lightfoot
    Gordon Lightfoot
    Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. is a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music, and has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s...

     on the album Sit Down Young Stranger
    Sit Down Young Stranger
    Sit Down Young Stranger is Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot's sixth original album and also his best-selling original album. It was released in 1970 on the Reprise Records Label. The album was renamed If You Could Read My Mind shortly after release due to the song of that title reaching number #5...

  • 1970 Kris Kristofferson
    Kris Kristofferson
    Kristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson is an American musician, actor, and writer. He is known for hits such as "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night"...

     on his debut album Kristofferson
    Kristofferson (album)
    Kristofferson is the first album by Kris Kristofferson, released in 1970 on Monument Records.Many of the songs on the album were already hits when covered by other artists...

    (Kristofferson's version also appears in the film "Two-Lane Blacktop
    Two-Lane Blacktop
    Two-Lane Blacktop is a 1971 road movie directed by Monte Hellman, starring singer-songwriter James Taylor, Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, Warren Oates, and Laurie Bird. Esquire magazine declared the film its movie of the year for 1971, and even published the entire screenplay in its April, 1971...

    ")
  • 1970 Bill Haley & His Comets
    Bill Haley & His Comets
    Bill Haley & His Comets was an American rock and roll band that was founded in 1952 and continued until Haley's death in 1981. The band, also known by the names Bill Haley and The Comets and Bill Haley's Comets , was the earliest group of white musicians to bring rock and roll to the attention of...

     on the album Rock Around the Country. (According to the biography Bill Haley by John Swenson, Kristofferson gave Haley's version his seal of approval.)
  • 1970 Sam The Sham
    Sam the Sham
    Sam the Sham is the stage name of the American rock and roll singer Domingo “Sam” Samudio . Sam the Sham was known for his camp robe and turban and hauling his equipment in a 1952 Packard hearse with maroon velvet curtains...

     from the Atlantic single "Me And Bobby McGee/Key To The Highway" (Atlantic #2757)
  • 1971 Janis Joplin
    Janis Joplin
    Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...

     U.S. number-one single, and on the album Pearl
    Pearl (album)
    -Personnel:* Janis Joplin – vocals, guitar on "Me and Bobby McGee"* Richard Bell – piano* Ken Pearson – organ* John Till – electric guitar* Brad Campbell – bass guitar* Clark Pierson – drums-Additional personnel:...

  • 1971 & 1972 Jerry Lee Lewis
    Jerry Lee Lewis
    Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The...

     (flip side to "Would You Take Another Chance on Me") and on "The Killer Rocks On"
  • 1971 Dottie West
    Dottie West
    Dottie West was an American country music singer and songwriter. Along with her friends and co-recording artists Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn, she is considered one of the genre's most influential and groundbreaking female artists...

     on the album Have You Heard...
  • 1971 The Grateful Dead on the album Skull & Roses, and numerous other live recordings
  • 1971 Loretta Lynn
    Loretta Lynn
    Loretta Lynn is an American country music singer-songwriter, author and philanthropist. Born in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky to a coal miner father, Lynn married at 13 years old, was a mother soon after, and moved to Washington with her husband, Oliver Lynn. Their marriage was sometimes tumultuous; he...

     on the album I Wanna Be Free
    I Wanna Be Free (Loretta Lynn album)
    I Wanna Be Free is a 1971 studio album by American country music singer-songwriter, Loretta Lynn.This was Lynn's third studio album of 1971 and her second studio album as a solo artist of the year. The lead single was the title track. The song peaked at #3 on the Billboard Country Chart and also...

  • 1972 Johnny Cash
    Johnny Cash
    John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...

     on the live På Österåker
    På Österåker
    På Österåker is a live album by country singer Johnny Cash released on Columbia Records in 1973. The album features Cash's concert at the Österåker Prison in Sweden held on October 3, 1972. Its predecessors in concept are the more notable At San Quentin and At Folsom Prison...

  • 1972 Jeannie C. Riley
    Jeannie C. Riley
    Jeannie C. Riley is an American country music and gospel singer. She is best known for her 1968 country and pop hit "Harper Valley PTA" , which missed becoming the Billboard Country and Pop number one hit at the same time...

     On her Give myself a party Album
  • 1973 Waylon Jennings
    Waylon Jennings
    Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. Jennings began playing at eight. He began performing at twelve, on KVOW radio. Jennings formed a band The Texas Longhorns. Jennings worked as a D.J on KVOW, KDAV and KLLL...

     on the album Lonesome, On'ry and Mean
    Lonesome, On'ry and Mean
    Lonesome, On'ry and Mean is an album by Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Victor in 1973. It was, after Good Hearted Woman and Ladies Love Outlaws, the third in a series of albums which were to establish Jennings as one of the most prominent representatives of the country movement, reaching #8 on...

  • 1973 Chet Atkins
    Chet Atkins
    Chester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...

     on the album Alone
    Alone (Chet Atkins album)
    Alone is an album by guitarist Chet Atkins. It peaked at number 42 on the Billboard Country Album charts.It was during the recording of this album that Chet was first diagnosed with colon cancer.- Reissues :...

  • 1973 Thelma Houston
    Thelma Houston
    Thelma Houston is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She scored a number-one hit in 1976 with her cover version of the song "Don't Leave Me This Way", which won the 1978 Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.-Early life & career:Houston is the daughter of a cotton picking mother...

     on Thelma Houston (1972)
    Thelma Houston (1972)
    Thelma Houston is the second album by Thelma Houston, recorded in 1972 and released in 1973. The album includes the single, "Me and Bobby McGee"...

  • 1973 Olivia Newton-John
    Olivia Newton-John
    Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...

     on the album Let Me Be There
    Let Me Be There (album)
    Let Me Be There is a 1973 album by Olivia Newton-John. It consisted of her performances of a collection of 11 cover songs, plus Let Me Be There, a new song first recorded by Newton-John herself...

  • 1974 Cornelis Vreeswijk
    Cornelis Vreeswijk
    Cornelis Vreeswijk , was a singer-songwriter, poet and actor born in IJmuiden in the Netherlands.He emigrated to Sweden with his parents in 1949 at the age of twelve. He was educated as a social worker and hoped to become a journalist, but became increasingly involved in music, performing at...

     on the album Getinghonung (Swedish lyrics: Jag och Bosse Lidén)
  • 1975 Lonnie Donegan
    Lonnie Donegan
    Anthony James "Lonnie" Donegan MBE was a skiffle musician, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name. He is known as the "King of Skiffle" and is often cited as a large influence on the generation of British musicians who became famous in the 1960s...

  • 1979 Gianna Nannini
    Gianna Nannini
    Gianna Nannini is an Italian female singer-songwriter and pop musician. She may be best known for her 1986 song "Bello e Impossibile".-Personal life:...

     (Io e Bobby McGee) on the album California
    California (Gianna Nannini album)
    -Track listing:All songs by Gianna Nannini except as noted.#"America" – 4:20#"California" – 8:14#"Good Bye My Heart" – 6:19#"Io e Bobby McGee" - 4:38#"Sognami" – 4:01...

  • 1984 Joan Baez
    Joan Baez
    Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....

     included a live version of the song on her Live Europe '83 album; Baez also performed the song with the Boston Pops in 1985.
  • 1994 Melissa Etheridge
    Melissa Etheridge
    Melissa Lou Etheridge is an American rock singer-songwriter and musician.Etheridge is known for her mixture of confessional lyrics, pop-based folk-rock, and raspy, smoky vocals...

     on the album Acoustic
  • 1997 Loquillo
    Loquillo
    José María Sanz Beltrán, Loquillo or Loco is a Spanish rock singer. He was born in Barcelona.-Discography Loquillo y los Intocables:*1980- Los tiempos están cambiando, Cúspide...

     on the album Compañeros de viaje.
  • 1999 LeAnn Rimes
    LeAnn Rimes
    LeAnn Rimes is an American country/pop singer. She is known for her rich vocals and her rise to fame as an eight-year-old champion on the original Ed McMahon version of Star Search, followed by the release of the Patsy Cline-intended single "Blue" when Rimes was only age 13, resulting in her...

     on the album LeAnn Rimes
    LeAnn Rimes (album)
    -Charts:LeAnn Rimes debuted at #8 on Billboard 200 with 115,000 copies sold in its first week.-Peak positions:-Year end-chart:-Sales:-References:...

  • 1999 Barb Jungr
    Barb Jungr
    Barb Jungr is an English singer-songwriter, composer and writer, of Czech and German parentage. She is perhaps best known as a chansonnière, or singer of chansons—in the sense of classic, lyric-driven French songs; in the broader sense of European songs in the cabaret style; and in the even...

     on the album Bare
  • 2002 Anne Murray
    Anne Murray
    Morna Anne Murray CC, ONS is a Canadian singer in pop, country and adult contemporary styles whose albums have sold over 54 million copies....

     on the album Country Croonin'
    Country Croonin'
    -Chart performance:...

  • 2002 Jennifer Love Hewitt
    Jennifer Love Hewitt
    Jennifer Love Hewitt is an American actress, producer, television director and former singer-songwriter. Hewitt began her acting career as a child by appearing in television commercials and the Disney Channel series Kids Incorporated...

     on the album Bare Naked
  • 2002 Waterloo & Robinson
    Waterloo & Robinson
    Waterloo & Robinson is an Austrian band, consisting of Johann Kreuzmayr and Josef Krassnitzer . The duo are most famous for representing Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 1976, performing the song My Little World, where they recorded a 5th-place finish with 80 points...

     (Ich und BobbyMcGee) on the album Marianne
  • 2003 Jerry Jeff Walker
    Jerry Jeff Walker
    Jerry Jeff Walker is an American country music singer and songwriter. He is probably most famous for writing the song "Mr. Bojangles.-Biography:...

     on the album Too Old To Change
  • 2004 Pink
    Pink (singer)
    Alecia Beth Moore , better known by her stage name Pink , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actress....

     on the album Live in Europe
  • 2005 Allison Crowe
    Allison Crowe
    Allison Louise Crowe is a Canadian singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist from Nanaimo, British Columbia who lives in Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador, communities spanning the breadth of Canada....

     on the double-album Live at Wood Hall
    Live at Wood Hall
    Live at Wood Hall is the fourth album release from Canadian singer-songwriter Allison Crowe. This double-CD set was recorded over two nights of concerts in the converted church chapel of the Conservatory of Music in Victoria, British Columbia....

  • 2005 Dolly Parton
    Dolly Parton
    Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...

     on the album Those Were The Days
    Those Were the Days (Dolly Parton album)
    -Charts:The album sold 57,000 copies in its first week of release.-External links:* at dollyon-line.com...

  • 2005 Arlo Guthrie
    Arlo Guthrie
    Arlo Davy Guthrie is an American folk singer. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo often sings songs of protest against social injustice...

     on the album Live In Sydney
    Live in Sydney
    Live in Sydney is the 2001 DVD release of Kylie Minogue's On a Night Like This Tour. The DVD features exclusive backstage footage of the concert, including a look into the dancers dressing rooms and a prank played on Kylie during the show entitled 'Will Kylie Crack'...

  • 2005 Tori Amos
    Tori Amos
    Tori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...

     live in Hartford 4 Oct 2005
  • 2007 Angela Kalule on the soundtrack of The Last King of Scotland
    The Last King of Scotland (film)
    The Last King of Scotland is a 2006 British drama film based on Giles Foden's novel of the same name, adapted by screenwriters Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock, and directed by Kevin Macdonald...

  • 2007 Caroline af Ugglas
    Caroline af Ugglas
    Caroline Thérese af Ugglas Liljedahl is a Swedish singer, artist and chorister.Af Ugglas participated in Melodifestivalen 2007 with "Tror på dig", written by herself along with Heinz Liljedahl and Mattias Torell...

     on the album Joplin på Svenska
  • 2010 Crystal Bowersox
    Crystal Bowersox
    Crystal Lynn Bowersox is an American singer-songwriter and actress, who was the runner-up on the ninth season of American Idol...

     American Idol
    American Idol
    American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...

     iTunes
    ITunes
    iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....

     release of studio version from Top 11 week, and Final 2 week, of season 9
    American Idol (season 9)
    The ninth season of American Idol premiered on January 12, 2010 and concluded on May 26, 2010 on Fox. Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi all returned as judges, and Ellen DeGeneres permanently replaced Paula Abdul as the fourth judge. Idol Gives Back also returned for the season and was...



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    Amanda Overmyer
    Amanda Lindsay Overmyer is an American rock singer-songwriter from Camden, Indiana who was the eleventh place finalist on the seventh season of American Idol. Following her run on Idol, Overmyer released her debut album Solidify on December 10, 2008 and is currently working on her second album...

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    Joan Baez
    Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....

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    Arlo Guthrie
    Arlo Davy Guthrie is an American folk singer. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo often sings songs of protest against social injustice...

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    Loretta Lynn is an American country music singer-songwriter, author and philanthropist. Born in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky to a coal miner father, Lynn married at 13 years old, was a mother soon after, and moved to Washington with her husband, Oliver Lynn. Their marriage was sometimes tumultuous; he...

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    Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...

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    Dave Dudley , born David Darwin Pedruska, was an American country music singer best-known for his truck-driving country anthems of the 1960s and 1970s and his semi-slurred baritone. His signature song was "Six Days on the Road," and he is also remembered for "Vietnam Blues," "Truck Drivin'...

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    Aaron Lewis, , is the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and founding member of the rock group Staind, with whom he has released seven studio albums. He has since ventured into country music with his debut solo album, Town Line...

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    John Doe (musician)
    John Doe is an American singer, songwriter, actor, poet and bass player. Doe founded the much-praised L.A. punk band X, of which he is still an active member. His musical performances and compositions span the rock, country and folk music genres...

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    Charley Pride
    Charley Frank Pride is an American country music singer. His smooth baritone voice was featured on thirty-nine number-one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. His greatest success came in the early- to mid-1970s, when he became the best-selling performer for RCA Records since Elvis...

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    Taylor Ashley Horn is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actress from Kentwood, Louisiana. She now goes by the stage name of Princess Bambi Monroe....

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    Kenny Rogers
    Kenneth Donald "Kenny" Rogers is an American singer-songwriter, photographer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur...

     
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    Brian McKnight is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, producer, and R&B/Pop musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist who plays nine instruments: piano, guitar, bass guitar, drums, percussions, trombone, tuba, flugelhorn and trumpet....

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  • Impotent Sea Snakes
    Impotent Sea Snakes
    The Impotent Sea Snakes were an American rock'n'roll band from Atlanta, Georgia known for their sexually explicit lyrics and performances and probably best known for their most high profile, publicized, and prolific touring period which lasted roughly from 1998-2004.The band put out three albums:...

  • Bobbie Gentry
    Bobbie Gentry
    Roberta Lee Streeter , professionally known as Bobbie Gentry, is a former American singer-songwriter notable as one of the first female country artists to compose and produce her own material...

  • Buck Owens
    Buck Owens
    Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr. , better known as Buck Owens, was an American singer and guitarist who had 21 No. 1 hits on the Billboard country music charts with his band, the Buckaroos...

  • Roy Clark
    Roy Clark
    Roy Linwood Clark is an American country music musician and performer. He is best known for hosting Hee Haw, a nationally televised country variety show, from 1969–1992. Clark has been an important and influential figure in country music, both as a performer and helping to popularize the genre...

  • Hank Snow
    Hank Snow
    Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow was a Canadian-American country music artist. He charted more than 70 singles on the Billboard country charts from 1950 until 1980...


  • Miscellaneous

    • The line about "Bobby and I Sang the Blues", was adopted by Don McLean
      Don McLean
      Donald "Don" McLean is an American singer-songwriter. He is most famous for the 1971 album American Pie, containing the renowned songs "American Pie" and "Vincent".-Musical roots:...

       for the song "American Pie" when he met a girl who "sang the blues", hoping for some "happy news", but "she just smiled and turned away".
    • The line: "Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose/ Nothing ain't worth nothing but it's free", is listed in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations under Kris Kristofferson's name.

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    External links

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