“Sundown” by Gordon Lightfoot

"Sundown" is the title song from Gordon Lightfoot's 1974 album, released as a single that March, and it's a folk-rock tale of a love affair with a jealous, troubled streak. The Canadian songwriter later explained where it came from: his girlfriend was out at a bar with her friends while he sat home writing, wondering what she was getting up to.

Lenny Waronker produced; Lightfoot and Terry Clements play acoustic guitars, John Stockfish bass and Jim Gordon drums, but the menace lives in Red Shea's lead: he cut the lead and solo parts on a tobacco-sunburst 1969 Gibson Les Paul Custom with a Bigsby arm, pushed through a cranked Fender Twin Reverb with the tremolo set low. It gave Lightfoot his only number one on the Hot 100, topped the easy listening chart and Canada's RPM chart too, and reached 13 on the country chart.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.