Song · John Hartford
“Gentle On My Mind” by John Hartford
From the album Earthwords & Music (1967)
“Gentle On My Mind” by John Hartford appears on 2 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 2001 and 2020. It was first released in 1967 on the album Earthwords & Music. Its best result is #397 on the WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #2,089 indie & aaa song of all time.
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John Hartford wrote "Gentle on My Mind" after seeing Doctor Zhivago in 1966, stirred by the film and by his own life, and he was the first to cut it, on his second album, Earthwords & Music, in 1967. The song rides along with a man drifting across the country, turning a lost love over in his head; one obituary boiled it down to a hobo mooning over the one who got away.
Felton Jarvis produced the session and Jim Malloy recorded it, and RCA issued Hartford's reading as a single. It won him two Grammy Awards in 1968, and his song went on to a long life on the airwaves: counting every version, BMI ranks it the second-most-played song on American radio.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 397 | WFPK | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2000 |
| 2020 | 926 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
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