Gentle on My Mind
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"Gentle on My Mind" is a song written by John Hartford, which won two 1968 Grammy Awards. Hartford himself won the award for Best Folk Performance. The other award, Best Country & Western Solo Vocal Performance, Male, went to Glen Campbell for his version of Hartford's song.
Hartford said that he was inspired to write the song's poignant lyrics after seeing the film Doctor Zhivago, and that it took about fifteen minutes to write down.
Campbell used "Gentle on My Mind" as the theme to his late-1960s TV variety show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour.
While Campbell's version remains the best known in the US, versions by Patti Page and Aretha Franklin were also Hot 100 hits in 1968 and 1969, respectively. In the UK, the version by Dean Martin reached number 2 in 1969. Elvis Presley also recorded the song at American Sound Studios in Memphis in January 1969, and the song featured on the award winning album From Elvis in Memphis. More recently, it was recorded by Lucinda Williams and this version was featured over the closing credits in the 2006 comedy movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
R.E.M. performs a cover of this song on Sounds Eclectic: The Covers Project, a covers album released by alternative radio KCRW with the participation of 15 different artists.
Claude François translated the lyrics into French and recorded it as "Si Douce A Mon Souvenir"
All together it has been recorded by over 300 different artists. Glen Campbell's version has received over 5 million plays on the radio.
