This was the first hit song written by Joni Mitchell,
whose version appears on her 1969 album
Clouds. Mitchell recalled: "I was reading Saul Bellow's
Henderson the Rain King on a plane and early in the book
Henderson the Rain King is also up in a plane. He's on his way to Africa and he looks down and sees these clouds. I put down the book, looked out the window and saw clouds too, and I immediately started writing the song. I had no idea that the song would become as popular as it did."
Joni Mitchell had been through a very difficult time when she wrote this song's lyric. In 1965, she gave birth to a baby girl, but struggled as a single mom (the father was an old boyfriend who left soon after Mitchell got pregnant). She married a musician named Chuck Mitchell that year, but soon after the marriage, gave up the child for adoption. Soon, her marriage was on the rocks, and in 1967 they split up.
Collins is known as a folk singer, and has recorded songs written by Leonard Cohen, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan and many others, as well as traditional songs like "
Amazing Grace." Her recording of this song provided her first hit, and also brought exposure to Mitchell, who went on to a very successful career as both a songwriter and performer.
This won the 1968 Grammy for Best Folk Performance.
Collins was a big influence on Mitchell, and Joni was thrilled when she recorded this song. At the 1966 Newport Folk Festival, Collins (a regular performer at the festival) introduced the then-unknown Mitchell to the crowd. Mitchell's set went over very well, and she remained grateful to Collins for the support.
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This is Joni Mitchell's most-covered song; with over 1000 versions recorded, it could be considered a standard. Some of the luminaries to record it include Frank Sinatra (on his 1968 album Cycles), Bing Crosby, and Ronan Keating.
When Mitchell first started performing this song in 1967, she called it "From Both Sides, Now." On her album, it was listed as "Both Sides, Now." Collins' version excised the comma.
Collins' recording features a harpsichord - an unusual instrument for a pop song. Joshua Rifkin, who did the arrangements on the album, came up with the idea and played it.
It was Al Kooper who put Joni Mitchell in touch with Judy Collins. As Collins tells it, she was asleep in her New York apartment when her old friend Kooper called. He had met Mitchell in a bar, and when he found out she was a songwriter, he followed her home and called Collins from her place. Mitchell sang her "Both Sides Now," and Collins knew right away that it was something special. "I had never heard a song that I felt was so beautiful," she said.
Collins put this on her 1967 album Wildflowers (her seventh LP), but it wasn't released as a single until 10 months later. The single version is different: it's a remix done by David Anderle designed to be more radio-friendly.
Dave Van Ronk released a version of this song (titled "Clouds") in 1968 on his album Dave Van Ronk & the Hudson Dusters.
This was used in the pilot episode of the TV series The Wonder Years, which took place in 1968. It was also used era-appropriately on the 2013 episode of Mad Men, "In Care Of," where it plays over the end credits. The song has appeared in the movies You've Got Mail (1998), Life as a House (2001) and Steve Jobs (2015), and over the final credits to the 2018 horror film Hereditary.
Sara Bareilles sang this in 2017 at the Oscars for the "In Memoriam" segment, honoring those in the industry who died in the past year. The previous year, Dave Grohl sang "
Blackbird" in this segment.
Judy Collins told Uncut in 2018 that though Joni Mitchell was initially "blown away and thrilled" by the song's success, "as the years went by, I think she became resentful that someone else had a hit with her song. The fact that it isn't appreciated by the writer is always discouraging."
Dolly Parton recorded a version with Judy Collins and Rhonda Vincent for her 2005 covers album, Those Were The Days.
Emilia Jones sings this in the movie CODA in character as Ruby Rossi, a high school girl whose parents and brother are deaf. In one scene, her choir teacher gets her to connect emotionally with the song, which she's able to do later by using sign language to interpret the lyrics for her family as she performs it at an audition.