THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

637-Joni Mitchell-Big Yellow Taxi.

1970-Number 11 single.

Best Bit-At 2.10. Joni Mitchell laughing at her own vocal gymnastics.

Joni Mitchell (see also best songs 558 and 299) was born Roberta Joan Mitchell on November 7th, 1943, in Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada, she released her debut studio Album ‘Song to a Seagull’ in 1968, and after the release of her 19th Album ‘Shine’ in 2007, she said it would be her last. In the UK the only time she has made the top 10 singles chart was when guesting on the Janet Jackson song ‘Got ’til It’s Gone’, which reached Number 6 in 1997, the song samples

‘Big Yellow Taxi.”Big Yellow Taxi’ is a song about the damage being done to the environment.Joni Mitchell has said,’I wrote Big Yellow Taxi’ on my first trip to Hawaii. I took a taxi to the hotel, and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance.The, I looked down, and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see,and it broke my heart, this blight on paradise. That’s when I sat down and wrote the song.The song also reminds us not to take anything for granted, and that if we don’t make a stand to protect the natural world it will be gone tomorrow.In the final verse ‘Joni’s ‘old man’ is taken away in a big yellow taxi. This refers to an old boyfriend, being arrested by the Canadian police, for being an environmental activist. In Toronto, Canada many of the police vehicles were yellow, with red flashing lights on the roof, and this is from where the song takes it’s title.The song has also charted twice in the UK for other artists. In 1995 the American singer Amy Grant took her version to Number 20, with slightly changed lyrics, at the request of Joni Mitchell,to bring the song more up to date, and in 2002 the American Rock band Counting Crows, with backing vocals from Vanessa Carlton made Number 16, after being featured in the film ‘Two Weeks Notice.’ In America the only version of this song to make the top 40 on Billboard was a 1970 cover from ‘The Neighborhood which made Number 29, although a live version by Joni Mitchell did reach Number 24 in 1974.

‘They paved paradise and put up a parking lot, with a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot.’