“Southern Nights” was a more personal song for Allen Toussaint. Released on his album of the same name from 1975, and recounted childhood memories of visiting family in the backwoods of Louisiana—Have you ever noticed Southern skies? / It’s precious beauty lies / Just beyond the eye it goes running through your soul / Like the stories told of old.
The song was the final one Toussaint wrote for the album. “While I was finishing the album, Van Dyke Parks visited me in the studio,” recalled Toussaint in 2014. “He said, ‘Well, consider that you were going to die in two weeks. If you knew that, what would you think you would like to have done?’ And after he said that, I wrote ‘Southern Nights’ as soon as he left.”
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Glen Campbell’s ‘Southern Nights’
Shortly after its release, Glen Campbell heard the song and connected to Toussaint’s storytelling, which reminded him of growing up on a farm in Billstown, Arkansas, and recorded it for his 1977 album Southern Nights.
“My dad told me when I was a kid, ‘You’re having the best time of your life, and you don’t even know it,’” said Campbell of the song. “Sure enough, he was right. Now I really feel the need to go back home, float down the Missouri River, and fish for bass and crappies. It’s really peaceful, and remote from things like telephones. My head is still there.”
Released as the lead single, Campbell’s rendition of “Southern Nights” topped the Billboard Hot 100 and Country charts. On the album, Campbell also covered the Beach Boys’ 1966 classic “God Only Knows” along with a new song Neil Diamond wrote for him about a blossoming love.
[RELATED: The 1967 Song Neil Diamond Wrote About an Imaginary Childhood Friend]
‘Sunflower, Fair Warning’
Released June 20, 1977, “Sunflower” went to No. 1 on the Easy Listening chart and No. 4 on the Country chart, for Campbell, and peaked at No. 39 on the Billboard Hot 100. Diamond’s lyrics follow a blooming courtship, one as bright and welcoming as sunflowers.
Sunflower, good morning
You sure do make it like a sunny day
Sunflower, fair warning
I’m gonna love you if you come my way
Now, if there’s a chance that romance can find you
Better not find you looking the other way
Now, isn’t it time you finally take it
Make it so real it steals your breath away
In 2018, Neil Diamond finally released his version of “Sunflower” on the box set, Neil Diamond’s 50th Anniversary Collection, along with a new lyric video.
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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