Me and Bobby McGee

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 This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (April 2009)
Original album cover from Roger Miller

"Me and Bobby McGee" is a song written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster, originally performed by Roger Miller. Janis Joplin notably covered the song on the album Pearl. The song was recorded only a few days before her death in October 1970.

Some sources state that Gordon Lightfoot issued the first recorded version; another story tells how Kristofferson popped his head into the studio with freshly written verses as Roger Miller was recording the song. Regardless, Miller was the first artist to have a hit with the song, peaking with it at #12 on the US country charts in 1969. Lightfoot's version hit #13 pop, and #1 country in his native Canada in 1970. In a 2008 autobiography, Don Reid and Harold Reid of the Statler Brothers say Kristofferson promised it to them, but when they later inquired about recording it, they learned Miller had already cut the song. The Reids say there were no hard feelings, and were happy about Miller's success with the song. The song was later included on a Statler Brothers album, but was not released as a single.

By far the best known recording is by Janis Joplin on her 1971 Pearl album. Kristofferson had sung the song for Joplin but did not know she had covered it until after her death.[1] Joplin's version topped the charts to become her only number one single and only the second posthumous number one single in rock & roll history (the first was "(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding). In 2004, the Janis Joplin version of this song was ranked #148 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Kristofferson performed the song live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 and a CD and DVD of the event were issued 30 years later as Message to Love: The Isle of Wight Festival 1970. The Janis Joplin version was used prominently in the epilogue of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's epic film of Berlin Alexanderplatz.

In the original version of the song, Bobby is a woman; Janis Joplin, who was a lover and a friend of Kristofferson's from the beginning of her career to her death, changed the sex and a few of the lyrics in her cover. Kristofferson states he did not write this song for her, but the song is associated with her. Especially, he has said, in the line, "Somewhere near Salinas, Lord, I let her slip away."[citation needed]

[edit] Selected list of recorded versions

Other artists

Preceded by
"One Bad Apple" by The Osmonds		 Billboard Hot 100 number one single (Janis Joplin version)
March 20, 1971 (two weeks)		 Succeeded by
"Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)" by The Temptations

[edit] References

  1. ^ Hawke, Ethan (April 16, 2009). "The Last Outlaw Poet". Rolling Stone (1076): 57. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/27113898/the_last_outlaw_poet. Retrieved on May 28, 2009. 

[edit] External links

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