The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

"The Wreck of the "Edmund Fitzgerald" is a 1976 hit song written, composed and performed by Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot to commemorate the sinking of the bulk carrier SS "Edmund Fitzgerald" on Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. Lightfoot drew his inspiration from "Newsweek" article on the event, "The Cruelest Month", which it published in its November 24, 1975, issue. Lightfoot considers this song to be his finest work.
Appearing originally on Lightfoot's 1976 album "Summertime Dream", the single version hit number 1 in his native Canada (in the "RPM" national singles survey) on November 20, 1976, barely a year after the disaster. In the United States, it reached number 1 in "Cashbox" and number 2 for two weeks in the "Billboard" Hot 100 (behind Rod Stewart's "Tonight's the Night"), making it Lightfoot's second-most-successful single, behind only "Sundown". Overseas it was at best a minor hit, peaking at number 40 in the UK Singles Chart.
Lightfoot re-recorded the song in 1988 for the compilation album "Gord's Gold, Vol. 2".
Lyrics.
The song contains a few artistic omissions and paraphrases. In a later interview aired on Canadian commercial radio, Lightfoot recounted how he had agonised over possible inaccuracies while trying to pen the lyrics until Lenny Waronker, his long-time producer and friend, finally removed his writer's block simply by advising him to play to his artistic strengths and "just tell a story". Lightfoot's passion for recreational sailing on the Great Lakes informs his ballad's verses throughout.
Deviations from the facts of the incident include:
Production.
The song was recorded in December 1975 at Eastern Sound, a recording studio composed of two Victorian houses at 48 Yorkville Avenue in a then-hippie district of downtown Toronto. The famous studio, which also recorded Rush, Cat Stevens, Bruce Springsteen and Jimi Hendrix, was later torn down and replaced by a parking lot.
The song was the first commercial early digital multi-track recording tracked on the prototype 3M 32-track digital recorder, a novel technology for the time.
Pee Wee Charles and Terry Clements came up with "the haunting guitar and steel riffs" on a "second take" during the evening session.
Lightfoot cleared the studio and killed all the lights save the one illuminating his parchment of scribbled words when recording his vocal part.
Derivative works.
During the 1984 United States presidential election, the comedian troupe Capitol Steps performed "The Wreck of the Walter 'Fritz' Mondale".
The Canadian art-rock group The Rheostatics recorded a version of the song for their 1991 album "Melville".
In 1995, two decades after Lightfoot's original song was written, singer-songwriter Camille West recorded a parody song with a similar rhythm titled "The Nervous Wreck of Edna Fitzgerald", about a well-to-do family's disastrous day at sea. She recorded and released it on her album "Mother Tongue" (subtitled "Maternal Madness, Month by Month") that year. Ten years later, after she had joined the band Four Bitchin' Babes, she and the band performed the song live, prefacing it with the comment, "With apologies to Gordon Lightfoot." It was included on their album of that year, "Gabby Road". 
In 1996, the American alternative rock band The Dandy Warhols recorded a 9-minute version of the song simply titled "The Wreck" for The Black Album which was not officially released until 2004. The band also recorded a shorter acoustic version of the song which appeared as the b-side to 1998 single "Boys Better".
Executive producer Paul Gross wanted to use the song for the "Due South" episode "Mountie on the Bounty". Lightfoot agreed, but only if Gross gained approval from the families of all the men who lost their lives in the wreck. Gross and Jay Semko instead created a song about a fictional shipwreck on the Great Lakes—"32 Down on the "Robert McKenzie".
The song "Back Home in Derry", with lyrics by Bobby Sands of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, was set to the tune of "The Wreck of the "Edmund Fitzgerald"". The song, which is about the penal transportation of Irishmen in the 19th century to Van Diemen's Land (modern day Tasmania), was first recorded by Christy Moore on his 1984 album "Ride On", and has since been covered by a number of Irish artists.
A filk adaptation of the song called "The Ballad of Apollo XIII", with new lyrics by William Warren Jr., was performed by Julia Ecklar on the 1983 album "Minus Ten and Counting".
Nash the Slash released a cover of The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald on his final studio album, "In-A-Gadda-Da-Nash" (2008).
Canadian rock group Headstones released a cover of the song on March 15, 2019.
In 2005, American metal band Jag Panzer released a cover of this song on a single.
In 2021, musical comedy group Richard Cheese & Lounge Against the Machine released a cover of the song as part of their album "Big Cheese Energy."