Song · Joni Mitchell
“The Circle Game” by Joni Mitchell
From the album Ladies of the Canyon (1970)
“The Circle Game” by Joni Mitchell appears on 7 radio countdowns from 3 stations between 2001 and 2026. It was first released in 1970 on the album Ladies of the Canyon. Its best result is #272 on the WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2004). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #1,011 indie & aaa song of all time.
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Joni Mitchell wrote "The Circle Game" back in 1966, but she didn't get around to cutting it herself until 1970, when it found a home on Ladies of the Canyon. Other singers got there first, and it became one of the most-covered songs in her book.
She wrote it as an answer to "Sugar Mountain", the song her friend Neil Young, a fellow Canadian folkie, had written on his 19th birthday to mourn the end of his teens. Where Young sulks at the gates of adulthood, Mitchell watches a boy grow up year by year and decides the dreams don't run out, they just change shape. It's her voice and acoustic guitar out front, with Crosby, Stills & Nash lending choir vocals behind her. It resurfaced on the 1974 live album Miles of Aisles.
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 | 1387 | WFPK | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2000 |
| 2004 | 272 | WXPN | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2004) | 885 |
| 2009 | 536 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Desert Island Songs (2009) | 885 |
| 2014 | 576 | WXPN | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2014) | 885 |
| 2020 | 642 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2023 | 406 | WYEP | WYEP Countdown to Fall 2023 | 1229 |
| 2026 | 993 | WYEP | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time | 1180 |
Also listed as: Circle Game.
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