Delta Dawn by lazarus57

lazarus57 - Delta Dawn

lazarus57

Sep 11, 2025 06:12pm

TOPGUN... ROUND 2<img src="https://singsnap-cdn.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/message-board/threads/MCXQ/e4630f53ea_4A1I_media.gif"> "Delta Dawn" is a song written by musician <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Collins_(musician)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Larry Collins</a> and country songwriter <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Harvey_(country_musician)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Alex Harvey</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Dawn#cite_note-1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[a]</a> The first notable recording of the song was in 1972 by American singer and actress <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bette_Midler" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Bette Midler</a> for her debut album <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Divine_Miss_M" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">The Divine Miss M</a>. However it is best known as a 1972 top ten <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Country_Songs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">country hit</a> for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanya_Tucker" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Tanya Tucker</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Dawn#cite_note-2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[1]</a> and a 1973 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Hot_100" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">US number one hit</a> for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Reddy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Helen Reddy</a>. ContentThe title character is a faded former <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_belle" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Southern belle</a> from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownsville,_Tennessee" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Brownsville, Tennessee</a>, who, at 41, is obsessed with the long-ago memory of a suitor who <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jilt" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">jilted</a> her. The lyrics describe how the woman regularly "walks downtown with a suitcase in her hand / looking for a mysterious dark haired man" who she says will be taking her "to his mansion in the sky."The song's writingAlex Harvey said he wrote the song about his mother:<blockquote>My mother had come from the Mississippi Delta and she always lived her life as if she had a suitcase in her hand but nowhere to put it down.</blockquote>Ten years before Harvey wrote the song, he was performing on TV and told his mother not to come, lest she get drunk and embarrass him. That night she died in a car crash, and Harvey believed it was suicide caused by his rejection.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Dawn#cite_note-3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[2]</a>For years Harvey suffered from guilt over the incident, until a cathartic incident the night he wrote the song. He was at fellow songwriter Larry Collins' house, who was asleep while Harvey noodled around on his guitar. He believed his mother then came to him in a vision:<blockquote>I looked up and I felt as if my mother was in the room. I saw her very clearly. She was in a rocking chair and she was laughing...I really believe that my mother didn't come into the room that night to scare me, but to tell me, 'It's okay,' and that she had made her choices in life and it had nothing to do with me. I always felt like that song was a gift to my mother and an apology to her. It was also a way to say 'thank you' to my mother for all she did.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Dawn#cite_note-songfacts-4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[3]</a></blockquote>After writing the first few lines of the song, Harvey woke Collins and they finished it together. Recording historyThe first recording of "Delta Dawn" was made by Harvey for his album Alex Harvey released in November 1971. Harvey had performed as the opening act for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Reddy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Helen Reddy</a> at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubadour_(Los_Angeles)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">the Troubadour</a> in January 1972, but at that time Reddy (who also was signed with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Records" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Capitol Records</a> label) made no connection with any of Harvey's compositions.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Dawn#cite_note-5" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[4]</a> Helen Reddy"Delta Dawn"<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Delta_Dawn_by_Helen_Reddy_US_Starline_early_reissue.png" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);"><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c8/Delta_Dawn_by_Helen_Reddy_US_Starline_early_reissue.png/250px-Delta_Dawn_by_Helen_Reddy_US_Starline_early_reissue.png" alt="vinyl label" height="252" width="250"></a> Record producer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Catalano" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Tom Catalano</a> created an instrumental track of "Delta Dawn." Catalano first offered the vocal track to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbra_Streisand" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Barbra Streisand</a>, but she refused; after this he gave the vocal to Reddy.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Dawn#cite_note-Nickel_Dreams_p178-10" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[9]</a>Reddy's version, which added upward <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modulation_(music)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">modulation</a> to Tucker's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_open" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">cold intro</a> and nonstop vocals throughout, entered the top ten on 18 August 1973, on its way to its lone week at number one on the main <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_(magazine)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Billboard</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Hot_100" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Hot 100</a> chart, on 15 September 1973. It remained in the top 10 for eight weeks,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Dawn#cite_note-11" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[10]</a> and was ranked as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1973" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">No. 14 song for 1973</a> according to Billboard. "Delta Dawn" was also the first of Reddy's six consecutive—and eight overall—number one hits on the Billboard <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Adult_Contemporary_Tracks" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Easy Listening chart</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Dawn#cite_note-Billboard_A/C_#1_Hits-12" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[11]</a> The song also topped the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_Box_(magazine)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Cash Box</a> chart on 8 September 1973, remaining at number one for two weeks.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Dawn#cite_note-13" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[12]</a>Reddy had reached number two with both "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Don%27t_Know_How_to_Love_Him" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">I Don't Know How to Love Him</a>" and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Woman" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">I Am Woman</a> in her native <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Australia</a>; "Delta Dawn" became her first number one hit there, spending five weeks at the top of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_Music_Report" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">Kent Music Report</a> in August and September 1973.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Dawn#cite_note-aus-14" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[13]</a> "Delta Dawn" also marked Reddy's only chart appearance in South Africa, reaching number 13 in the autumn of 1973.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Dawn#cite_note-saf-15" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 204);">[14]</a> <img src="https://tse4.mm.bing.net/th/id/OIP.tbhQ24nYzZyJOFPIkZE1qAHaEM?rs=1&pid=ImgDetMain&o=7&rm=3" alt="Helen Reddy, voice behind Delta Dawn, feminist anthem I Am Woman ...">