Rhymes & Reasons (John Denver album)

Rhymes & Reasons is the first commercial studio album by the American singer-songwriter John Denver, released in October 1969 by RCA Records. It was reissued on CD by Legacy Recordings in 2005.^[5]

Rhymes & Reasons
Studio album by John Denver
Released	October 14, 1969
Studio	RCA, New York City
Genre	Folk rock
Length	37:28
Label	RCA Victor
Producer	Milton Okun
John Denver chronology
John Denver Sings (1966) Rhymes & Reasons (1969) Take Me to Tomorrow (1970)
Singles from Rhymes & Reasons
"Daydream[1]" Released: October 1969 "Leaving on a Jet Plane[2]" Released: October 1969

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
The New Rolling Stone Record Guide	[4]

"Leaving on a Jet Plane" was written and recorded by Denver in 1966 and included on his debut demo recording John Denver Sings as "Babe I Hate to Go". He made several copies and gave them out as presents for Christmas of that year. Denver's then producer Milt Okun convinced him to change the title and it was renamed "Leaving on a Jet Plane" in 1967. After the success of the Peter, Paul and Mary version in 1969, Denver recorded the song again for his debut album, Rhymes & Reasons, and it was released as a single in October 1969. Although it is one of Denver's best known songs, his single failed to enter the charts. It was re-recorded for the third and final time in 1973 for John Denver's Greatest Hits and this version appears on most of his compilation albums.^[6]

Track listing

Side one

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"The Love of the Common People"	John Hurley Ronnie Wilkins	4:06
2.	"Catch Another Butterfly"	Mike Williams	2:31
3.	"Daydream"	John Denver	2:54
4.	"The Ballad of Spiro Agnew"	Tom Paxton	0:15
5.	"Circus"	Michael Johnson Denver Laurie Kuehn	2:37
6.	"When I'm Sixty-Four"	John Lennon Paul McCartney	2:02
7.	"The Ballad of Richard Nixon"	Paxton	0:05
8.	"Rhymes & Reasons"	Denver	3:15
Total length:			17:45

Side two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Yellow Cat"	Steven Fromholz	2:52
2.	"Leaving on a Jet Plane"	Denver	3:37
3.	"(You Dun Stomped) My Heart"	Mason Williams	2:41
4.	"My Old Man"	Jerry Jeff Walker	4:34
5.	"I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free"	Billy Taylor Dick Dallas	3:49
6.	"Today Is the First Day of the Rest of My Life (Sugacity)"	Pat Garvey Victoria Garvey	2:10
Total length:			19:43

CD edition (bonus tracks)

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
15.	"Rusty Green"	Denver
16.	"Take Me to Tomorrow" (early version)	Denver

Personnel

Musicians John Denver – guitar, vocals, arranger Stan Free – organ Paul Griffin – keyboards Herbie Lovelle – drums George Marge – baritone saxophone Paul Prestopino – guitar, autoharp, mandolin Albert Richmond – French horn Russ Savakus – bass guitar Teddy Sommer – drums Marvin Stamm – flute, trumpet Eric Weissberg – banjo, steel guitar Tommy Goodman - additional instrumentation

Production Jim Crotty – recording engineer Milton Okun – producer, arranger John Woram – recording engineer Jean Goldhirsch - assistant producer

Charts

Chart (1969–73)	Peak position
UK Albums (OCC)[7]	21
US Billboard 200[8]	148

References

1. "John Denver – Daydream".
2. "John Denver – Leaving On A Jet Plane".
3. https://www.allmusic.com/album/r5448
4. The New Rolling Stone Record Guide. Random House. 1983. p. 136.
5. "legacyrecordings.com". Archived from the original on November 21, 2008.
6. "John Denver – Rhymes & Reasons". www.discogs.com. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
7. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
8. "John Denver Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved November 8, 2021.

External links

• Rhymes & Reasons at Discogs (list of releases)