''Summertime Dream'' is

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

singer

Gordon Lightfoot Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. (November 17, 1938 – May 1, 2023) was a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved worldwide success and helped define the singer-songwriter era of the 1970s. Widely considered one of Canada's greatest songwriters, ...

's eleventh studio album, released on the Reprise Records label in 1976. It peaked at #1 on the Canadian '' RPM'' national album chart, and #12 on the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' pop chart. The album marked Lightfoot's commercial zenith in a remarkable period of popularity which had begun with the 1970 hit, " If You Could Read My Mind". He would not achieve the same level of commercial success through to his death in 2023. The album shot to popularity on the back of the haunting ballad, " The Wreck of the ''Edmund Fitzgerald''", which told the story of the final hours of the iron ore freighter SS ''Edmund Fitzgerald'' which had sunk on

Lake Superior Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. Lake Michigan–Huron has a larger combined surface area than Superior, but is normally considered tw ...

in November 1975. The song remains popular to this day and has been credited with making the sinking of ''Edmund Fitzgerald'' the most famous maritime incident in the history of the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

. "The Wreck of the ''Edmund Fitzgerald''" reached #1 in Canada on November 20, 1976. List of RPM number-one singles of 1976 In the US, it peaked at #2 on the pop chart and #50 on the country chart while "Race Among the Ruins" peaked at #65 on the pop chart.

Track listing

All songs composed by

Side 1

#"Race Among the Ruins" – 3:21 #" The Wreck of the ''Edmund Fitzgerald''" – 6:30 #"I'm Not Supposed to Care" – 3:31 #"I'd Do It Again" – 3:14 #"Never Too Close" – 3:04 #"Betty Called Me In" – 2:39 (1999 release only)

Side 2

#"Protocol" – 4:02 #"The House You Live In" – 2:55 #"Summertime Dream" – 2:30 #"Spanish Moss" – 3:51 #"Too Many Clues in This Room" – 4:49

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Personnel

*Gordon Lightfoot -

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

, 6- and 12-string

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

s *Terry Clements - lead acoustic and electric guitars *Pee Wee Charles - pedal steel guitar *Rick Haynes -

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

*Barry Keane -

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

;Additional personnel * Gene Martynec -

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer ( ) is a modular synthesizer invented by the American engineer Robert Moog in 1964. Moog's company, R. A. Moog Co., produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 2014. It was the first commercial synthesizer ...

* Jim Gordon - drums on "The House You Live In"

References

External links

Album lyrics and chords
{{Authority control Gordon Lightfoot albums 1976 albums Albums produced by Lenny Waronker Reprise Records albums