As the adage goes: you snooze, you lose. And in the lightning-fast entertainment industry, sometimes, you don’t even have to be snoozing to miss an opportunity. John Denver learned that the hard way in the months following Jerry Jeff Walker’s release of “Mr. Bojangles” on his album of the same name. Denver had plans to release a cover version as a single, but Nitty Gritty Dirt Band released their own version first.
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Nitty Gritty Dirt Band founder Jeff Hanna recalled meeting Denver for the first time at The Aspen, the basement club of the Continental Inn in Aspen, Colorado. “Our opening act was Steve Martin because we had the same manager,” Hanna said in an interview with Otis Gibbs. “John [Denver] came by one night, and he wanted to sit in.” The band gladly accepted, and after the show, they reconvened in the dressing room.
While there, Denver told the band how badly he wanted to record a version of “Mr. Bojangles” by Jerry Jeff Walker. Hanna insisted, “We were never thinking about, ‘I beat you to the punch.’ But he said, ‘Yeah, you guys, it’s a good version. I’m glad you had a hit with it.’”
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Didn’t Feel Too Bad After Hearing This John Denver Work-In-Progress
Whether or not John Denver wanted the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band to feel guilty, we have to assume there’s always an inclination to apologize—especially between friends and respected peers—when you realize that one of your creative moves cancelled out theirs. The apology, of course, was a courtesy more than anything. However, even if the band did feel that way, they didn’t for very long. As Jeff Hanna recalled, Denver told Nitty Gritty that he was working on a new song.
That song, Hanna said, was the early stages of “Take Me Home, Country Roads”. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band founder continued, “We all just kind of leaned back, and we went, ‘Yeah, I think you’re okay.’”
And indeed he was. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s early 1970s single, “Mr. Bojangles”, peaked at a relatively successful No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads”, however, peaked at No. 2 and became a folk standard around the world. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was one of many, many artists who covered “Mr. Bojangles”. But everyone associates “Take Me Home, Country Roads” with Denver.
“Just incredible,” Hanna said. “He was a really good cat. I’m glad we got to know him.”
Photo by David Warner Ellis/Redferns
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