John Denver (1944 - 1997)
Thirty years ago John Denver wrote what is arguably one of the most requested love songs ever, "Annie´s Song", for his then-wife Annie Denver after the near break up of their marriage. It sold more than a million copies hitting the number one spot simultaneously in the U.S and the U.K. The year 2004, September, it is exactly 30 years since "Annie´s Song" topped the charts.
Now BMG have just released the digitally remixed and remastered ´A Song´s Best Friend: The Very Best of John Denver´ on 20th September 2004. This 2-CD set features all Denver´s greatest hits such as "Leaving On A Jet Plane", "Take Me Home, Country Roads" and "Rocky Mountain High" plus 5 newly discovered and never released tracks as a special bonus disc.
"The Very Best of John Denver" is sure to reawaken interest in an artist who was without question, one of the most successful and influential singer / songwriters in music history during the seventies. To date, he has sold 60 million albums around the world and achieved numerous accolades along the way. And he was one of the first artists to use his fame to further causes he deeply cared about - especially environmental conservation and world hunger.
John loved to fly, and that´s how his life abruptly ended there. He was only 53 when the aircraft he´d been piloting crashed into Monterey Bay, near Carmel, California on October 12,1997. Visit johndenver.com to read his biography.
What's inside A Song's Best Friend: The Very Best of John Denver:
The 24-page booklet included in A Song's Best Friend: The Very Best of John Denver will feature never-before-seen photos of the late entertainer and comprehensive liner notes written by longtime Rolling Stone contributing editor David Wild and a song-by-song commentary with personal stories by longtime producer and friend Milt Okun.
Track Listing:
1. Annie's Song
2. Back Home Again
3. Calypso
4. Fly Away
5. Leaving On A Jet Plane
6. My Sweet Lady
7. Rocky Mountain High
8. Sunshine On My Shoulders
9. Take Me Home, Country Roads
10. Thank God I'm A Country Boy (live version)
11. I'm Sorry
12. Like A Sad Song
13. Looking For Space
14. Shanghai Breezes
15. Sweet Surrender
16. Perhaps Love (with Placido Domingo)
17. Wild Montana Skies (with Emmylou Harris)
18. Farewell Andromeda (Welcome To My Morning)
19. The Eagle & The Hawk
20. Poems, Prayers and Promises
Bonus disc tracks (newly discovered and previously unreleased):
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Leaving On A Jet Plane -- from a private Christmas album Denver made for friends, family and business contacts in 1966
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The Weight -- studio rendition of The Band's classic - recorded June 2, 1970
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Annie's Song new acoustic mix with guitars, mandolin and vocals
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Calypso - new acoustic mix with guitars, mandolin and vocals
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Amsterdam - recorded live at London Palladium
Alan Jackson sings a lot of sad songs.
 About half the 12 tracks on Alan Jackson's new album "What I Do" deal with lost love or loneliness. "It just happened that way," said Jackson, who speaks in the same lazy drawl he sings in. "It wasn´t anything planned. Even some of the lighter songs are about that same subject. But that´s always been my favorite kind of song anyway." "What I Do" is Jackson´s 14th album, and it follows the triple platinum "Greatest Hits Volume II" collection. Long after most of his contemporaries have faded, he remains one of Nashville´s biggest stars. He snagged a leading seven awards nominations last month from the Country Music Association, including one for Entertainer of the Year.
"Alan has a gift for capturing life in a song; he´s done it time and again," said Gwen Foster, music director at radio station KNIX in Phoenix. "He´s not a fancy guy. He´s not a dynamic or explosive entertainer by any means. The way he expresses himself through the songs is what grabs people."
The new album, for which Jackson wrote five of the 12 tracks, is often melancholy. He sings about a failing relationship in "You Don´t Have to Paint Me a Picture," learning to love again in "There You Go" and the pain of losing a loved one in "Strong Enough." They´re not all sad. The first single, "Too Much of a Good Thing," is about a couple so happily in love that he sings, "I should be scared, it´s so right." The song has reached No. 5 on Billboard magazine´s country singles chart. "It´s a bit of a shadow of what my life is really like," said Jackson, who´s been married to his wife, Denise, for almost 25 years.
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