"If You Could Read My Mind" Gordon Lightfoot

[TNSUN]

Whenever I hear this song, I imagine how beautiful the lyrics would be, as sung by song stylist Diana Ross.

[kenneth]

Hard to imagine Ross singing that, but it is a beautiful song and would certainly be interesting to hear her rendition. I just played his greatest hits collection yesterday in fact. He’s a great singer and songwriter.

[PeaceNHarmony]

Hard to imagine Ross singing that, but it is a beautiful song and would certainly be interesting to hear her rendition. I just played his greatest hits collection yesterday in fact. He’s a great singer and songwriter.

Yes, Lightfoot [[though not a 'favorite' of mine) is sui generis. Not sure if I can hear Diana singing it or not. A tad out of date, at this point, anyway ...

[nomis]

I like Viola Wills version

[sansradio]

Streisand did a lovely version; I could hear Diana doing a nice job on it.

[benross]

Thomas Louis Jans' chillingly lovely song Loving Arms, recorded by Dobie Gray and by Rita Coolidge and Kris Kristofferson, among others, has the same '70s vibe as If You Could Read My Mind and might be an even better fit for Diana, particularly in her pop/jazz adult contemporary Touch Me In The Morning album.

Diana did country and folk music so well, on songs like Funny How Time Slips Away, Lazy Bones, Tears In Vain, Sorry Doesn't Always Make It Right, Last Time I Saw Him and What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted, for instance, along with the unexpected ones like Ode To Billie Joe, Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling and later gems like Love Will Make It Right, You Do It, Love Or Loneliness and, despite the lyric flub, Forever Young.

Loving Arms and perhaps If You Could Read My Mind both could have been good additions to Diana's catalog, although having heard Barbra Streisand's version of both Time And Love and Stoney End first and having never heard or even imagined a Diana Ross foray with If You Could Read My Mind, I'm inclined to be partial to Barbra's takes. But a Diana Ross interpretation of I Don't Know Where I Stand, also from the Stoney End album, could be interesting, again as a cut in the Touch Me In The Morning album.

[PeaceNHarmony]

Thomas Louis Jans' chillingly lovely song Loving Arms, recorded by Dobie Gray and by Rita Coolidge and Kris Kristofferson, among others, has the same '70s vibe as If You Could Read My Mind and might be an even better fit for Diana, particularly in her pop/jazz adult contemporary Touch Me In The Morning album.

Diana did country and folk music so well, on songs like Funny How Time Slips Away, Lazy Bones, Tears In Vain, Sorry Doesn't Always Make It Right, Last Time I Saw Him and What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted, for instance, along with the unexpected ones like Ode To Billie Joe, Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling and later gems like Love Will Make It Right, You Do It, Love Or Loneliness and, despite the lyric flub, Forever Young.

Loving Arms and perhaps If You Could Read My Mind both could have been good additions to Diana's catalog, although having heard Barbra Streisand's version of both Time And Love and Stoney End first and having never heard or even imagined a Diana Ross foray with If You Could Read My Mind, I'm inclined to be partial to Barbra's takes. But a Diana Ross interpretation of I Don't Know Where I Stand, also from the Stoney End album, could be interesting, again as a cut in the Touch Me In The Morning album.

I do love 'Loving Arms'! What sort of musical arrangement do you 'hear' for Diana?

[kenneth]

It’s hard to hear it when you listen to a country song and later a soul/R&B song in isolation, but many music writers have always maintained how similar these two genres are.


King Records was an early pioneer in terms of “crossover“ artists. They had several albums of R&B singers doing country songs, and vice a versa. When you hear how well the material fits on some of these singers who you wouldn’t expect to hear doing such songs, it’s striking. A good example is the list above of the various Ross tunes in the country vein that she has recorded solo or as a member of the Supremes.


Tina Turner, who we just discussed in another thread, also excels at country and western material which she exploited in her album “Tina Turns the Country On.”

[PeaceNHarmony]

It’s hard to hear it when you listen to a country song and later a soul/R&B song in isolation, but many music writers have always maintained how similar these two genres are.


King Records was an early pioneer in terms of “crossover“ artists. They had several albums of R&B singers doing country songs, and vice a versa. When you hear how well the material fits on some of these singers who you wouldn’t expect to hear doing such songs, it’s striking. A good example is the list above of the various Ross tunes in the country vein that she has recorded solo or as a member of the Supremes.


Tina Turner, who we just discussed in another thread, also excels at country and western material which she exploited in her album “Tina Turns the Country On.”

Yes, well noted Kenneth and I still have my original 'Tina Turns ...' lp which I recall being quite pleasantly surprised by at the time of its release. Of course Millie J also did quite a bit of country and Bobby Womack as well. The soul-country subgenre is indeed interesting.

[kenneth]

Yes, well noted Kenneth and I still have my original 'Tina Turns ...' lp which I recall being quite pleasantly surprised by at the time of its release. Of course Millie J also did quite a bit of country and Bobby Womack as well. The soul-country subgenre is indeed interesting.

It’s another example, of which there are many, of an album I passed on at the time but have now grown to love. Her renditions of some of that material written by Kris Kristofferson, or performed by others such as Olivia Newton-John [[though not strictly country obviously) are absolutely spot on. It’s an album I rediscovered years later and really love.

[carlo]

I would have loved to have heard Donna Summer cover this song.