#2: Spin Spin by Gordon Lightfoot

City: Sault Ste. Marie, ON
Radio Station: CJIC
Peak Month: October 1966
Peak Position in Sault Ste. Marie ~ #2
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #25
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Spin Spin”
Lyrics: “Spin Spin”

Gordon Meridith Lightfoot Jr. was born in Orillia, Ontario, on November 17, 1938. His parents, Jessica and Gordon Lightfoot Sr., ran a dry cleaning business. His mother noticed young Gordon had some musical talent and the boy soprano first performed in grade four at his elementary school. He sang the Irish lullaby “Too Ra Loo Rah Loo Rah” at a parents’ day. As a member of the St. Paul’s United Church choir in Orillia, Lightfoot gained skill and needed confidence in his vocal abilities under the choir director, Ray Williams. Lightfoot went on to perform at Toronto’s Massey Hall at the age of twelve when he won a competition for boys who were still boy sopranos. During his teen years Gordon Lightfoot learned to play piano, drums and guitar.

In the years that followed Lightfoot performed in coffee houses in Toronto. He got work as a performer on the CBC’s Country Hoedown and went to England to host the BBC TV Country and Western Show in 1963-64. At that time, Lightfoot’s songs were recorded by numerous recording acts. These included “Early Morning Rain” by both the Kingston Trio and Judy Collins, and “Ribbon of Darkness” by Marty Robbins. The attention Lightfoot got as a songwriter landed him a record contract with United Artists in 1965. In 1966 he was commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to compose the “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” for a broadcast on New Year’s Day in 1967, the nations centennial.

Meanwhile, Lightfoot released a non-album single titled “Spin Spin”.

Gordon Lightfoot writes about the “web of love” in his song “Spin Spin”. The lyrics describe:
And my daddy said when I was young
“Beware the web of love, my son
To be in love is to be insane
Make an old man groan, a young man pain”

In the song a woman sits all day and spins her web. The fellow is drawn into “your web so warm.” The web is described in the song variously as a “web of love,” a “web of wild design,” and a “web of desire.” No matter what the young man does, he is drawn to the web.

“Spin Spin” climbed to number-one in Saint John (NB), #2 in Sault Ste. Marie (ON), #6 in Toronto, and Edmonton (AB), #8 in Lindsay (ON), and #14 in Peace River (AB).

The next single release was “Go Go Round“.

“Black Day in July“, a song about the riots in Detroit in the summer of 1967, peaked at #6 in May 1968. “Bitter Green” was Gordon Lightfoot’s fourth single to chart on Vancouver’s pop radio stations and his second to crack the top ten.

Gordon Lightfoot was born in Orillia, Ontario. He studied music at McGill, the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto and the Westlake College of Music in Hollywood, California. Lightfoot would end up as part of The Swinging Eight, a featured group on the CBC program Country Hoedown. Bitter Green was the single release from Lightfoot’s fourth studio album, Back Here on Earth. It peaked at #5 in Vancouver, but only reached #44 on the national RPM Canadian singles charts. It did not chart in the USA.

In 1970, Gordon Lightfoot released a recording of Kris Kristopherson’s song “Me and Bobby McGee“.

Lightfoot’s breakthrough in the USA was with “If You Could Read My Mind”. He went on in the mid-70’s to chart “Sundown” to #1 and “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald” to #2 in the USA. (Both were #1 hits nationally in Canada). Between his initial breakthrough and later hits in the mid-70’s, there were three songs that did well in Canada but less well in the USA. The first of these was “Talking In Your Sleep”. Next, he released “Summer Side of Life“.

Gordon Lightfoot also charted well in Canada with “Beautiful” and “You Are What I Am”.

Gordon Lightfoot’s last charting single in Vancouver was “Daylight Katy” in 1978. Between 1966 and 2004 Lightfoot released 19 studio albums and 46 singles. In 1988, he performed at the opening ceremony of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. In 1997, Gordon Lightfoot received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, the top honor a recording artist can receive in the performing arts in Canada. A tribute album to Gordon Lightfoot was recorded by many Canadian recording artists in a special release in 2003. In 2012 he performed the “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” at the 100th Grey Cup football championship between the Toronto Argonauts and the Calgary Stampeders. In 2019, he announced that he was recording his 20th studio album, Solo, which was released in March 2020.

Lightfoot was a lifelong fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team and was made an honorary captain of the team for the 1991-92 season.

In his last two years of touring, Lightfoot shortened his show to one hour, and remained seated for the last few dates he performed. He played what turned out to be his final concert on October 30, 2022, in Winnipeg.

Gordon Lightfoot died in May 2023 at the age of 84.

August 7, 2026
Ray McGinnis

References:
Gordon Lightfoot – The Man And His Music, Gordon Lightfoot.com.
Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian Bands.com
Mike Sacks, “Gordon Lightfoot Talks Sadness, Regret, and Maritime Disasters: In a Rare Interview, the Legendary Singer-Songwriter Discusses His Life’s Work, His Current Set List, and Why it No Longer Includes “For Lovin’ Me.“, Vanity Fair, New York, September 27, 2016.
Karen Hiffman Milson, “Interview With Gordon Lightfoot,” United Church Observer, Toronto, Ontario, June 2013.
Martin Chilton, “Gordon Lightfoot: The Queen Likes My Canadian Railroad Trilogy Song,” Telegraph, London, UK, May 18, 2016.
Joel Rubinoff, “Gordon Lightfoot’s Harshest Critic Is Himself,” Toronto Star, November 21, 2016.
Chris Morris, “Gordon Lightfoot, Folk Singer Who Topped Charts With ‘Sundown’ and ‘If You Could Read My Mind’, Dies at 84,” Variety, May 1, 2023.

CJIC 1050-AM Sault Ste. Marie (ON) Top Ten | October 14, 1966