Both Sides, Now

For other uses, see Both Sides Now (disambiguation).

"Both Sides, Now"
Single by Judy Collins
B-side	"Who Knows Where the Time Goes"
Released	1968
Format	7" single
Genre	Folk, pop
Label	Elektra EK-45639
Writer(s)	Joni Mitchell
Producer	Mark Abramson
Music sample "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 (along 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.

Cover versions

1960s

• Mitchell's friend Dave Van Ronk covered the song on his 1967 album Dave Van Ronk and the Hudson Dusters, titling the song "Clouds." Mitchell often said that this rendition of her song was the finest ever.^{[citation needed]}
• Another early version was released by the pop group Harpers Bizarre in the fall of 1968 on its third album, Secret Life of Harpers Bizarre.
• Bing Crosby sang two renditions of this song, one on the TV variety show Hollywood Palace, the other on his 1968 Hey, Jude/Hey, Bing album.
• Frank Sinatra recorded the song under the title "From Both Sides, Now" on his 1968 album Cycles.
• Anne Murray included the song on her 1968 debut album What About Me.
• A French version of the song, with adapted lyrics by Eddy Marnay, was recorded by Marie Laforêt in 1968 under the title "Je n'ai rien appris."
• In September 1968, another French talent recorded her version of the song. Actress and singer Claudine Longet added the song to her LP "Colours" for release in the United States.
• Christine Charbonneau recorded her own version of the song under the title "Je n'avais pas compris" released in Québec in 1969, on Gamma Records, Canada.
• Nana Mouskouri recorded "Je n'ai rien appris" on her album of 1969, Dans le soleil et dans le vent.
• Davy Graham recorded a version on his 1969 album Large as Life But Twice as Natural. His version included a long Middle Eastern-style introduction.
• Pete Seeger did a cover on his 1969 LP of songs for children and elderly called Young vs. Old. Seeger added a more optimistic fourth verse to the song. The new lyrics are in Seeger's book Where Have All the Flowers Gone in the chapter "New Words?"
• The Mystic Moods Orchestra included an instrumental version of this song on the 1969 LP Love Token
• Dion DiMucci recorded a version in 1969.

1970s

• Euson released "Both Sides Now" as a single in 1970. His version made it to no 7 on the Dutch Charts.^{[citation needed]}
• Andy Williams sings the song on his 1970 album Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head.
• Randy Scruggs performed an instrumental version of the song on The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's 1972 album Will the Circle Be Unbroken.
• A solo version by jazz guitarist Pat Martino was included on his 1974 album Consciousness.
• Roger Whittaker recorded this song for his 1971 album New World in the Morning. He changed the title to "From Both Sides Now."
• German Tango-King Alfred Hause did an instrumental rendering for the 1972 LP Film-Themes (but not as Tango).

1980s

• Paradox (夢劇院), a Hong Kong singing group, released a Cantonese cover version "The Color Theory of Relativity" (Chinese: 彩色相對論) in 1988 based on this song. They also recorded the same song in original lyrics. Both versions were released in their first two albums.

1990s

• Michael Feinstein covered the song on the 1990 compilation Rubáiyát, which celebrated the 40th anniversary of Elektra Records.
• Hole, the alternative rock band fronted by Courtney Love, covered the song on their 1991 debut album Pretty on the Inside, under the title "Clouds".
• It was also a minor hit in the UK and Canada for the Irish band Clannad in a duet with British singer Paul Young, recorded for the 1991 motion picture Switch. It was the only chart appearance for Clannad in the Canadian RPM 100 Singles Chart.
• Punk-pop band Parasites covered it on their 1994 album Pair.
• Dianne Reeves covered "Both Sides, Now" on her album Quiet After the Storm (1994).
• b-flower, a Japanese indie band, covered this song in English on their album "Clover Chronicles l" (1994).
• Randy Scruggs performed an instrumental guitar solo of the song on his 1998 album, Crown Of Jewels.
• Filipina singer/actress Sharon Cuneta recorded a version for her 1999 album, When I Love, and it was released as the album's lead-off single. The song was subsequently used as the theme for her 2001 movie, Magkapatid (Siblings).

2000s

• A cover of this song by the band Dengue Fever, sung in Khmer, appeared on the soundtrack of the 2002 movie City of Ghosts.
• Dolly Parton covered "Both Sides, Now" on her 2005 album Those Were the Days. Parton's version featured vocals by Judy Collins, who, as noted, first recorded the song.
• Hayley Westenra also recorded this song in 2005, on her album Odyssey.
• In 2006, Cathrine Hickland Lindsay from One Life to Live recorded it for an album titled One Life, Many Voices, which featured many stars from the program to raise money for Hurricane Katrina
• Swedish singer Håkan Hellström did a cover in Swedish in 2006. His version is called "Båda Sidor, Nu."
• A version by Doris Day, originally recorded on a television special in 1971, was incorporated in the 2006 reissue of her album The Love Album.
• Contemporary jazz saxophonist Michael Lington covered the song from his 2006 renditions album "A Song for You."
• In the 2006 musical stage adaptation of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the song is used in the Australian, New Zealand and London productions, but was replaced in the Broadway production by Cyndi Lauper's True Colors.
• Jazz musician Herbie Hancock and his band performed the song on the 2007 album River: The Joni Letters. Hancock's version of the song was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Jazz Solo. The album won the 2008 Grammy for Album of the Year.
• Tina Arena recorded the song in 2008 on her album Songs of Love & Loss 2.
• Allison Moorer covered the song on her 2008 album Mockingbird.
• John Barrowman covered this song for his 2008 album Music Music Music.
• Japanese singer Rie fu covered the song on her UK released album Who is Rie fu? in 2008.
• Adult contemporary artist Linda Eder recorded the song, which appeared on her 2008 album The Other Side of Me
• Ronan Keating recorded "Both Sides, Now" on his 2009 tribute album to his late mother, Songs for My Mother.
• In 2009, the song was covered by European singer Lara Fabian on her album Every Woman In Me.
• Rachael Yamagata recorded a version of the song for 2009's The Village, a tribute album honoring the folk music scene of New York's Greenwich Village in the 1960s.
• Clay Aiken performed this song at the National Inclusion Project Champions Gala 2010.^{[citation needed]}
• Japanese folk song group Yamori (Ryoko Moriyama and Akiko Yano) covered the song on their 2010 album Anata To Utaou.
• Susan Boyle covered the song on her 2011 album Someone To Watch Over Me.
• Carly Rae Jepsen recorded a version of the song on her 2012 EP Curiosity.

Other versions

Other versions have been recorded and/or performed by: Leonard Nimoy (1968), Catherine McKinnon (1968), Robert Goulet (1968), Neil Diamond (1969), Jimmie Rodgers (1969), Glen Campbell (1970), Engelbert Humperdinck (1970), Claudine Longet (1970), the Tokens (1971), The Boomtang Boys (1999), Jason Falkner (2001), Tori Amos (2005), John Barrowman (2008) and The Idea of North (2011).

Media appearances

• This song was featured in the film Life as a House in 2001.
• The song is being played on a CD player by a crying Karen (Emma Thompson) when she realizes that her husband Harry (Alan Rickman) is possibly having an affair with his administrative assistant in the film Love Actually.
• The opening ceremonies of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games featured "Both Sides, Now" as accompaniment to a dance depicting the vastness of the Canadian prairies.

Clannad and Paul Young Single

"Both Sides, Now"
Single by Clannad, Paul Young
from the album Switch
Released	1991
Recorded	Windmill Studios, Dublin, Ireland
Genre	Pop rock, New Age
Length	4:46 [radio edit] 5:10 [full version]
Label	MCA
Writer(s)	Joni Mitchell
Clannad, Paul Young singles chronology
"Why Worry?" (1991) "Both Sides Now" "Theme from Harry's Game" (1992)

In 1991 Irish band Clannad and English pop singer Paul Young recorded a cover version of "Both Sides, Now" as part of the soundtrack to the film Switch. The song was also released as a single.

Tracklisting

7" vinyl

1. Both Sides Now [edit]
2. Broken Man

12" vinyl, cassette & 5" compact disc

1. Both Sides Now [edit]
2. Are You Listening Lucky?
3. Both Sides Now