Me and Bobby McGee

For the album entitled Me and Bobby McGee, see Kristofferson (album).

"Me and Bobby McGee"
Single by Roger Miller
from the album Roger Miller 1970
Released	July 1969
Format	7"
Recorded	May 16, 1969
Genre	Country
Length	4:02
Label	BNA 69035
Writer(s)	Kris Kristofferson Fred Foster
Producer	Jerry Kennedy
Roger Miller singles chronology
"Vance" (1969) "Me and Bobby McGee" (1969) "Where Have All the Average People Gone" (1969)

"Me and Bobby McGee" is a song written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster, originally performed by Roger Miller. Others performed the song later, including Kristofferson himself^{[citation needed]}, and Janis Joplin who topped the U.S. singles chart with the song in 1971 after her death, making the song the second posthumous number-one single in U.S. chart history after "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding.

Recordings and notable performances

Roger Miller was the first artist to have a hit with the song, peaking with it at No. 12 on the US country chart in 1969. Gordon Lightfoot's version hit No. 13 on the pop chart and No. 1 country in his native Canada in 1970. Lightfoot sang the song after a detailed tribute to Kris Kristofferson in a CBC broadcast from the summer 1969 Charlottetown Festival. In his introduction, Lightfoot referred to the Miller version and said he intended to record it himself "the way it should be done."^{[citation needed]} 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, and was not released as a single.

Janis Joplin also covered the song for inclusion on her Pearl album only a few days before her death in October 1970. Kristofferson had sung the song for Joplin, and singer Bob Neuwirth taught it to her. Kristofferson, however, did not know she had covered it until after her death (the first time he heard it was the day after she died).^[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 No. 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.

The Grateful Dead regularly covered the song between 1970 and 1974 and a few more times in 1981. Bob Weir's cover seems to be a combination of Kristofferson's and Joplin's versions.

Story

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]} In a conversation with director Monte Hellman called "Somewhere Near Salinas", available in the supplements to the Two-Lane Blacktop Criterion Collection DVD release (a film in which Kristofferson's version is used on the soundtrack), Kristofferson states that the film La Strada was an inspiration for the song and remarks on the irony of how a song inspired by a classic "road movie" should come to be used in another.

Chart positions (Roger Miller version)

Chart (1969)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles	12
U.S. Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100	22
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	3

Selected list of recorded versions

• 1969 Roger Miller on the album Roger Miller 1970
• 1969 Kenny Rogers & The First Edition on the album Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town
• 1970 Ramblin' Jack Elliott on the album Bull Durham Sacks & Railroad Tracks
• 1970 Gordon Lightfoot on the album Sit Down Young Stranger
• 1970 Kris Kristofferson on his debut album Kristofferson ( Listen (help·info)) (Kristofferson's version also appears in the film "Two-Lane Blacktop")
• 1970 Bill Haley & His Comets on the album Rock Around the Country. (According to the biography Bill Haley by John Swenson, Kristofferson gave Haley's version his seal of approval.)
• 1970 Sam The Sham from the Atlantic single "Me And Bobby McGee/Key To The Highway" (Atlantic #2757)
• 1971 Janis Joplin U.S. number-one single, and on the album Pearl ( Listen (help·info))
• 1971 & 1972 Jerry Lee Lewis (flip side to "Would You Take Another Chance on Me") and on "The Killer Rocks On"
• 1971 Dottie West on the album Have You Heard...
• 1971 The Grateful Dead on the album Skull & Roses, and numerous other live recordings
• 1971 Loretta Lynn on the album I Wanna Be Free
• 1972 Johnny Cash on the live På Österåker
• 1972 Jeannie C. Riley On her Give myself a party Album
• 1973 Waylon Jennings on the album Lonesome, On'ry and Mean
• 1973 Chet Atkins on the album Alone
• 1973 Thelma Houston on Thelma Houston (1972)
• 1973 Olivia Newton-John on the album Let Me Be There
• 1974 Cornelis Vreeswijk on the album Getinghonung (Swedish lyrics: Jag och Bosse Lidén)
• 1975 Lonnie Donegan
• 1979 Gianna Nannini (Io e Bobby McGee) on the album California
• 1984 Joan Baez included a live version of the song on her Live Europe '83 album; Baez also performed the song with the Boston Pops in 1985.
• 1994 Melissa Etheridge on the album Acoustic
• 1997 Loquillo on the album Compañeros de viaje.
• 1999 LeAnn Rimes on the album LeAnn Rimes
• 1999 Barb Jungr on the album Bare
• 2002 Anne Murray on the album Country Croonin'
• 2002 Jennifer Love Hewitt on the album Bare Naked
• 2002 Waterloo & Robinson (Ich und BobbyMcGee) on the album Marianne
• 2003 Jerry Jeff Walker on the album Too Old To Change
• 2004 Pink on the album Live in Europe
• 2005 Allison Crowe on the double-album Live at Wood Hall
• 2005 Dolly Parton on the album Those Were The Days ( Listen (help·info))
• 2005 Arlo Guthrie on the album Live In Sydney
• 2005 Tori Amos live in Hartford 4 Oct 2005
• 2007 Angela Kalule on the soundtrack of The Last King of Scotland
• 2007 Caroline af Ugglas on the album Joplin på Svenska
• 2010 Crystal Bowersox American Idol iTunes release of studio version from Top 11 week, and Final 2 week, of season 9

Other artists

Amanda Overmyer Joan Baez Arlo Guthrie Loretta Lynn Willie Nelson Dave Dudley The Statler Brothers Aaron Lewis John Doe (Listen)

Charley Pride Taylor Horn Kenny Rogers ( Listen (help·info)) Brian McKnight Celinda Pink The Platters

Impotent Sea Snakes Bobbie Gentry Buck Owens Roy Clark Hank Snow

Miscellaneous

• The line about "Bobby and I Sang the Blues", was adopted by Don McLean for the song "American Pie"^{[citation needed]} when he met a girl who "sang the blues", hoping for some "happy news", but "she just smiled and turned away".
• The line: "Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose/ Nothing ain't worth nothing but it's free", is listed in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations under Kris Kristofferson's name^{[citation needed]}.

Preceded by "Everything a Man Could Ever Need" by Glen Campbell	RPM Country Tracks number one single (Gordon Lightfoot version) September 19, 1970	Succeeded by "Countryfied" by Dick Damron
Preceded by "One Bad Apple" by The Osmonds	Billboard Hot 100 number one single (Janis Joplin version) March 20–27, 1971	Succeeded by "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)" by The Temptations

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 May 28, 2009. ^{[dead link]}

External links

• New Yorker cartoon quoting the song
• A list of selected artists who covered "Me and Bobby McGee"