Gordon Lightfoot | COMPLETE GREATEST HITS | CD

Personnel includes: Gordon Lightfoot (vocals, guitar); Red Shea, Huey McCracken (guitar); Rick Haynes (bass); Jim Gordon (drums, percussion); Kenny Buttrey, Buddy Harmon, Jimmy Isbell (drums).
Producers include: John Court, John Simon, Elliot Mazer, Lenny Waronker, Joe Wissert.
Compilation producer: Thane Tierney.
Include liner notes by Leigh Hall.
Digitally remastered by Andrew Garver, Dan Hersch, and Bill Inglot.
Personnel: Gordon Lightfoot (vocals, guitar); Red Shea (guitar, dobro); Charlie McCoy (guitar, harmonica, celesta, bells); Terry Clements (guitar, background vocals); Chip Young, David Rea, Dean Parks, Bruce Langhorn, Hugh McCracken, Michael Francis, Michael Landau, Bob Mann, Jerry Shook (guitar); Vassar Clements (fiddle); Jack Zaza (alto flute, harmonica, recorder, bass clarinet, English horn, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, harmonium); Nick DeCaro (accordion, piano); Mitchell Clarke (bassoon); Vern Dorge (alto saxophone, tenor saxophone); Doug Riley (piano, electric piano); Hargus "Pig" Robbins (piano); Lou Pomanti (organ); Mike Heffernan, Tom Szczesniak, David Foster (keyboards); James Newton Howard, Robbie Buchanan (synthesizer); Gene Martynec (Moog synthesizer); Barry Keane (drums, tambourine, percussion); Jim Gordon , Kenny Buttrey (drums, percussion); Jim Isbell, Herb Lovelle, Buddy Harman (drums); Victor Feldman, Milt Holland, Farrell Morris (percussion); Laverna Moore, Catherine Smith, Herb Pedersen, Jackie Ward, Suzie McCune, Sheree Jeacocke, Ray C. Walker, Richard Marx, Vesta Williams, Rick Haynes, Neal Matthews, Gordon Stoker, Hoyt Hawkins, Millie Kirkham (background vocals).
Audio Remasterers: Andrew Garver; Daniel Hersch; Bill Inglot.
Liner Note Author: Thane Tierney.
Recording information: Amigo Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Eastern Sound Studios, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Lighthouse Recorders, Los Angeles, CA; Lionshare; Nashville, TN; New York, NY; Owen Bradley's Barn, Nashville, TN; Sunwest Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Woodland Sound Studios, Nashville, TN.
Photographer: Jim Marshall .
He may be remembered by the unenlightened as a purveyor of mellow '70s AM radio hits, but Gordon Lightfoot is as fine a singer-songwriter as Canada has ever produced (no small accomplishment, considering the company), feted by no less than Bob Dylan himself. COMPLETE GREATEST HITS is as definitive a Lightfoot collection as you can get onto a single disc, and it bears out the aforementioned facts handsomely. "Early Morning Rain," one of Lightfoot's earliest hits, is a poignant evocation of lost love on a par with Merle Haggard's "Silver Wings." "If You Could Read My Mind" has enough introspective pop savvy to compete with Elton John's equally ubiquitous "Your Song." The bluesy, subtly sensual undercurrent of "Sundown" makes it plain why there's always been such a large female contingent in Lightfoot's audience, and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" proves that the pop star can write a timeless-sounding folk ballad worthy of Townes Van Zandt. Clearly, this compendium presents Lightfoot quite rightly as a man for all seasons.

• Format: CD
• Genre: Pop
• Released: 4/2/2002
• Released: 04/02/2002