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Topic spans: 1967 - 2005
Joni Mitchell: All Sides Now
Long before she was a music icon, she was a Canadian Prairie girl who loved to paint. But art school wasn't for Joni Mitchell, so she dropped out and joined the folk music circuit. By the late 1960s, her star was starting to soar. Mitchell's musical style evolved significantly over the decades, but her sensitive yet spirited personality has always shone through. Today, she still loves to paint. But now she's also considered an extremely important part of music history, with songs like The Circle Game, Big Yellow Taxi and Both Sides Now still being sung around countless bonfires.
11 television clips
7 radio clips
Both Sides Now
Broadcast Date: April 15, 1968
It was a real turning point in Joni Mitchell's career. In 1968, American singer Judy Collins had a smash hit with a song Mitchell penned called Both Sides Now. Collins's recording was so popular that people couldn't wait to hear more from the woman who wrote the ballad. And on her much anticipated 1969 album Clouds, Mitchell got a chance to record Both Sides Now herself.In this 1968 CBC TV clip, Mitchell performs her own beautiful rendition of the song.
After she finishes performing Both Sides Now, she softly begins to sing her next song. "This is a song about seasons, and circles, and growing old, and growing young, and it's called The Circle Game," she says, introducing the song that would later become another Mitchell classic.
Both Sides Now
• Mitchell released her first album, Joni Mitchell (Song to a Seagull) in March 1968. 1969's Clouds was her second album.• Judy Collins's version of Both Sides Now peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Top 100 and won a Grammy award in 1969 for Best Folk Performance of 1968.
• The following year, Mitchell won the Grammy for Best Folk Performance of 1969 for the album Clouds.
• Other artists who have covered Both Sides Now include:
- Bing Crosby
- Willie Nelson
- Pete Seeger
- Frank Sinatra
- Clannad and Paul Young
• According to jonimitchell.com, Both Sides Now is her most covered song, with 504 known versions. The website says her second-most covered song is 1970's Big Yellow Taxi (which features the now well-known phrase "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot"), with 183 known versions.
• The Circle Game is not too far behind Big Yellow Taxi in terms of covers, with 122 known versions.
• Artists who have covered The Circle Game include:
- Ian and Sylvia
- Buffy Sainte-Marie
- Dolly Parton
- Tori Amos
• Although Mitchell wrote it during the 1960s, The Circle Game was not recorded until her third album, Ladies of the Canyon, which was released in 1970.
Both Sides Now
Medium: Television
Program: The Day It Is
Broadcast Date: April 15, 1968
Guest(s): Joni Mitchell
Duration: 8:38
Last updated:
Jan. 22, 2007
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18 clips in this topic . page
Television
2:04
July 28, 1989
Singer Anne Murray returns to Springhill, N.S. to open a museum in her honour.
Both Sides Now.
The CBC Digital Archives Website.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Last updated: Jan. 22, 2007.
[Page consulted on Feb. 9, 2010.]