Songoftheday - it's funny how you sound as if you're right next door when you're really a half a world away...

John Denver - "Shanghai Breezes"

from the album Seasons Of The Heart (1982)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #31 (one week)

weeks in the top-40: 5

Today's Song of the Day was the final top-40 hit for 70's country-rock icon John Denver. Not from Denver or Colorado but actually New Mexico as John Deutschendorf, Denver's first big break was when folk superstars of the time Peter, Paul, & Mary recorded and topped the US pop charts with a version of his "Leaving On A Jet Plane" in 1969. Two years later, he has his own solo hit with the #2 "Take Me Home Country Roads", followed by six more top-ten hits. Denver even had the biggest single of 1975 with the double-sided hit of "I'm Sorry"/"Calypso" (for you youngun's, a "double sided hit was when both songs on each side of a 7" single were hits), though that was his last top-ten pop single in the US.

By the early 80's, Denver's music had more of a home on adult contemporary radio, where "Shanghai Breezes" was his ninth (and final) #1 hit on that chart. It was released the year that Denver was going through a acrimonious divorce with his first wife, Annie, and the single and album cover was photographed at the Purple Cloud Cave in Hangzhou, China.

Denver was made a Poet Laureate of Colorado in 1977, and the year this song was released Denver won Carl Sandburg's People's Poet Award. He continues to record in the 80's, and scored a top-10 country single in 1985 with "Dreamland Express". However more marital problems with wife #2 and a hindering alcohol problem affected his career and life.

Sadly, Denver died in a plane crash in 1997 at age 53. His music may be hokey and wussy for some, but his best work rivals the heart of the Carpenters'. And its worth checking out his Christmas album with the Muppets, one of the best holiday records of all time.

Up tomorrow: Queen goes spacey.