Both Sides, Now

"Both Sides, Now" is a single by Joni Mitchell. Her recording first appeared on the album Clouds, released in 1969. She re-recorded the song in a Jazz style for the album of the same name, released in 2000.

It is one of Joni Mitchell's best-known songs (with "Big Yellow Taxi," "Woodstock," and "A Case of You"). It was written in March 1967, inspired by a passage in Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow. :I was reading Saul Bellow's "Henderson the Rain King" on a plane and early in the book Henderson the Rain King is also up in a plane. He's on his way to Africa and he looks down and sees these clouds. I put down the book, looked out the window and saw clouds too, and I immediately started writing the song. I had no idea that the song would become as popular as it did.

Judy Collins made the first commercially released recording of the song in 1968, shortly after Mitchell wrote it, which reached #8 on the U.S. pop singles charts and won a 1968 Grammy Award for Best Folk Performance. The record peaked at #3 on Billboard's Easy Listening survey, and has become one of Collins' signature songs.

Fairport Convention recorded the song as a demo in 1967. The band's recording did not become available until 2000, however, when it appeared on The Guv'nor Vol 4 by Ashley Hutchings. (A live recording featuring Judy Dyble from 1981 is included on Fairport's Moat on the Ledge album.)

Both Joni Mitchell's album Both Sides Now and a 2003 Mitchell rerecording of the song are featured in the 2003 movie Love Actually.

Rolling Stone ranked "Both Sides, Now" #170 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

The song was published by Scholastic as a picture book, Both Sides Now, illustrated by Alan Baker, in 1992 (ocm24629360).

Cover versions

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

Other versions

References

Category:Joni Mitchell songs Category:1967 songs Category:Judy Collins songs Category:Paul Young songs Category:Songs written by Joni Mitchell Category:Viola Wills songs