Me and Bobby McGee

Me and Bobby McGee is a song written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster, originally performed by Roger Miller, and later by others including Kristofferson himself, and also Janis Joplin, who topped the U.S. singles chart with the song in 1971, after her death, making the song the second posthumous number-one single in U.S. chart history. Kristofferson didn’t even know that Joplin had recorded the song until he heard her recording for the very first time on the day of her death.

ROGER MILLER

JANIS JOPLIN

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON

GORDON LIGHTFOOT

JOHNNY CASH

JERRY LEE LEWIS

THE GRATEFUL DEAD

WAYLON JENNINGS

JOAN BAEZ with the Boston Pops

SHERYL CROW and Kris Kristopherrson

LEANN RIMES

OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN

WILLIE NELSON

TORI AMOS

TIFFANY

CHARLEY PRIDE

TASHA ROUBION

DOLLY PARTON

PINK

FELICITY URQUART and Felicity Urquart & Mark Seymour

IMA

DANNI LEIGH

JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT

TINA LIE

AISHA

THE HIGHWAYMEN

Now, that was fun.

It’s a beautiful song (see more about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_and_Bobby_McGee) and a lot of folks have tried to make it their own over the years (the gallery above is only scratching the surface with some of the youtube videos that allow embedding) and some with obviously more success than others. I think the ones who respect the song and sing it with their own voice, their own true voice not an affectation, are the ones with more success with it. A few intentionally attempt – rather unsuccessfully – to make it their own by performing in a rather heavy stylistic affectation that is supposed to show us how wonderfully unique they are but really what happens is they butcher the song and look a bit more like dweebs than anything else. Some evolve their styles over the years, and that’s okay.

In any case, you’ve probably heard this song before . . . it is interesting to see youtube comments by folks who believe this or that singer has the only “true rendition” of it or who believe that this or that person wrote it despite the long history of previous performances. Others who get rather more than pissed off when anyone other than their favorite singer attempts it and close their ears and their hearts so to speak. Me, I love the song and am happy to hear a good singer perform it . . . it’s when someone puts out an average pissant performance or an ostentatious bit of affectation and egotistical bit of stylistic crap that bugs me. I suppose that’s up to one’s own taste but I think that’s good enough for me.

Peace,
Brian
http://www.briandavidphillips.com