- Help Me (Joni Mitchell song)
Infobox single
Name = Help Me
Artist =Joni Mitchell
from Album =Court and Spark
B-side = Just Like This Rain
Released = March 1974
Recorded = 1973
Genre =Folk jazz ,Singer-songwriter
Length = 3:22
Label = Asylum
Writer =Joni Mitchell
Producer = Joni Mitchell
Last single = "Raised On Roberry"
(1973)
This single = "Help Me"
(1974)
Next single = "Free Man in Paris "
(1974)"Help Me" is the title of a
Joni Mitchell love song that she first recorded for the1974 album "Court and Spark ". The song, a confession of love trouble, uses jazz band Tom Scott's L.A. Express [ [http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=5920 Help Me by Joni Mitchell Songfacts] ] . On the charts, "Help Me" was Mitchell's biggest hit single; in 1974, it became her only top 10 hit on theBillboard Hot 100 , where it peaked at #7, and also hit number one on the adult contemporary singles chart. The song is ranked #282 onRolling Stone 's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time [cite web|url=http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6596127/help_me/1|title=The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time|publisher=RollingStone.com|accessdate=2008-09-16] .The
2006 "365 Tunes Calendar" by Page-a-Day says the following about this song, which was the song of the day on Tuesday,November 7 : "Sometimes high-flown romanticism simmers and sometimes it explodes. This tune does both. It simmers on the verses, and on the bridge-when Joni and her backing singers repeat "Didn't it feel good?"-it erupts into a convergence of guitars, woodwinds, and sax that hits your ear likePop Rocks in your mouth, tangy bursts of tonal coor fizzing around everywhere. Like most of Mitchell's best work, there's a sense of abandon within strictly defined patterns."Influences and covers
The influence of this song (which is rich in Mitchell's special mix of
folk music andjazz ) can be heard in Prince's song "Ballad of Dorothy Parker" (from his "Sign 'O' the Times" album). Multiple artists have covered this song such as:Wynonna (covered on the2000 album: "New Day Dawning");Mandy Moore (on her2003 album "Coverage");k.d. lang (covered on the2004 album "Hymns of the 49th Parallel " as a bonus track); Nicola Kramer and Domu (Sonar Kollektiv ,2004 ); andRyan Adams (covered the song during a solo show in2005 ).References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.