"If You Could Read My Mind" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot. It reached #1 in the Canadian Singles Chart on commercial release in 1970, and also charted in several other countries on international release in 1971.
Theme
Lightfoot has cited his divorce for inspiring the lyrics, saying they came to him as he was sitting in a vacant Toronto house one summer. At the request of his daughter, Ingrid, he performs the lyrics with a slight change now: the line "I'm just trying to understand the feelings that you lack" is altered to "I'm just trying to understand the feelings that we lack." He has said in an interview that the difficulty with writing songs inspired by personal stories is that there is not always the emotional distance and clarity to make lyrical improvements such as the one his daughter suggested.
This song first appeared on Lightfoot's 1970 album Sit Down Young Stranger, which was later renamed If You Could Read My Mind following the song's success.
Chart performance
On release the song reached #1 in Canadian Singles Chart, and was his first recording to appear in the USA, reaching #5 on the BillboardHot 100 singles chart in February 1971. Later in the year it reached #27 in the Australian Singles Chart, an #30 in the United Kingdom's. The song also reached number one for one week on the BillboardEasy Listening chart, and was the first of four Lightfoot releases to reach number one.
Rights infringement legal action
In 1987 Lightfoot filed a lawsuit against the composer of Whitney Houston's hit "The Greatest Love of All", Michael Masser, alleging plagiarism of 24 bars of "If You Could Read My Mind"; the transitional section that begins "I decided long ago never to walk in anyone's shadow" of the Masser song has the same melody as "I never thought I could act this way and I got to say that I just don't get it; I don't know where we went wrong but the feeling's gone and I just can't get it back" of Lightfoot's song. Lightfoot has stated that he dropped the lawsuit when he felt it was having a negative effect on the singer Houston, as the lawsuit was about the writer and not her. He also said that he didn't want people thinking that he had stolen his melody from Masser. The case was settled out of court and Masser issued a public apology.
The house music collective Stars on 54—consisting of Amber, Jocelyn Enriquez, and Ultra Naté—recorded a version of the song for the 1998 film, 54, reaching number three on Australia's ARIA Singles Chart and Canada's RPM Singles Chart, as well as number six in New Zealand and number ten in Spain. Australian music channel Max placed "If You Could Read My Mind" at number 675 in their list of 1000 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2012.
Many artists have covered "If You Could Read My Mind." Among the most notable versions is the 1980 cover by Viola Wills which peaked at number two for five weeks on the dance/disco charts with a dance version of the song. The song has also been used in motion pictures and television shows, including:
