Song of the Day: Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Read My Mind”

Song of the Day 1 Minute

Today is the birthday of George Joseph Kresge, better known by his stage name, The Amazing Kreskin. Kreskin is a performer who does seemingly impossible feats of mindreading, though he makes it clear that he’s neither psychic nor clairvoyant; it’s all done with psychology and interviewing techniques that he teaches to police departments. He turns 87 today, and he still performs. I’ve chosen an appropriate song, Gordon Lightfoot’s "If You Could Read My Mind," which reached #1 in Canada in 1970 and #5 in the US in 1971.

Published by John Holton

Internet disc jockey, lover of old TV (especially the commercials), inveterate wise guy.

Published

15 thoughts on “Song of the Day: Gordon Lightfoot, “If You Could Read My Mind””

  1. Pingback: The (Belated) 10th Anniversary Week That Was – The Sound of One Hand Typing

  2. Hi John – this is one of my favourite songs and I love hearing it again … Gordon Lightfoot gave us wonderful songs. Interesting to hear the back story. As I’m Brain Rambling at the moment – reading my mind might be challenging! Cheers Hilary

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    1. I think he’s been highly underrated as a songwriter. I love his voice, too. The one I would have used in retrospect is “Carefree Highway,” my favorite of his.

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  5. This song is such a lovely well-crafted song. One of my favorites for sure.

    I recall seeing Kreskin on variety shows back in the seventies–Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin. Johnny Carson, etc. I’m not a big fan of mentalism, but he was rather popular back then.

    Arlee Bird
    Tossing It Out

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    1. There was a game (at least it came in a box like the ones used for games) that I had called “Kreskin’s ESP” that purported to test one’s level of ESP and give pointers on how to improve it. I wrote my 8th grade term paper on ESP using what I got from that and got an A on it.

      Kreskin had a syndicated TV show in Canada that got picked up by WGN that I liked. Later I learned the trick about mentalist acts, but his seemed a little different, like he was using actual psychological techniques to “read people’s minds.” Kind of like that TV show The Mentalist, where the guy really had no psychic powers, just had a knack for observing and fot asking questions (“Psych” was pretty much the same, though that was more a comedy).

      Gordon Lightfoot is a remarkable songwriter, isn’t he?

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