We tend to think of John Denver as the quintessential 70s folk-pop singer. That was certainly the decade where he enjoyed his greatest success. By the end of that decade, pop audiences started to see him as square, which led to a decline in the popularity of his songs.
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But Denver quietly enjoyed a bit of a chart resurgence in the early 80s, taking advantage of a mini soft-rock boom before MTV flash took over. In fact, his final US Top 40 hit came in 1982. It also found him enjoying great success with the adult contemporary crowd that had stuck with him even in the leanest years.
70s Rise
For a certain type of music fan who equated optimism with naivete, John Denver was never going to be on their favorites list. But Denver’s earnest songwriting and crystalline singing voice earned him a massive following in the early to mid-70s when he could stake a claim as one of the biggest stars in the business.
His solo career might never have lifted off if he hadn’t first enjoyed songwriter-for-hire success. Peter, Paul and Mary made a huge hit out of “Leaving On A Jet Plane”. That provided him with the financial stability to make a go of it as an artist.
In 1971, Denver was almost finished with his album Poems, Prayers And Promises when the songwriting duo of Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert introduced Denver to their composition “Take Me Home, Country Roads”. Denver helped them finish the song and included it on the record. It became his first runaway hit, and it set him up for massive success for the rest of the decade.
A Mild Resurgence
By the end of the 70s, John Denver’s songs were struggling on the pop charts. The man who had churned out four No. 1 singles earlier in the decade watched as song after song from 1977 to 1980 went nowhere. His chart drought was finally broken in 1981 when “Some Days Are Diamonds (Some Days Are Stone)” squeaked to No. 36.
In 1982, Denver released the album Seasons Of The Heart, which he dedicated to his wife Annie Martell. Denver had written many songs in tribute to his longtime wife (they married in 1967), most famously the chart-topping “Annie Song” in 1974. But theirs was not always a smooth coupling. They even endured a mid-70s separation before reuniting.
The lead single off Seasons Of The Heart was “Shanghai Breezes”. Denver had visited Shanghai not long before that, and the experience played into the song’s writing. But, like most of the songs on the album, it also delves deep into his relationship with his wife.
Like Old Times
“Shanghai Breezes” acts as a kind of love letter sent by the narrator to his beloved, who is “half a world away.” In it, John Denver references how Annie had served as his muse. “And especially when I sing the songs I wrote for you,” he sings. “You are in my heart and living there.”
With a lovely melody and some evocative flute work from legendary session player Jim Horn, “Shanghai Breezes” is very much of a piece with the big hits Denver delivered in the 70s. Yet there it was in 1982, reaching No. 31 on the pop charts. It also gave him one more No. 1 on the adult contemporary chart.
Sadly, “Shanghai Breezes” proved the end of an era in a couple of ways for Denver. He’d never again make it to the US Top 40. And his marriage to Annie ended within the same year that the song was released.
Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images
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