"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is a 1976 song written, composed and performed by Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot to memorialize the sinking of the bulk carrier SS Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. Lightfoot considered this song to be his finest work.
The ballad chronicles the final voyage of the Edmund Fitzgerald as it succumbed to a massive late-season storm and sank in Lake Superior with the loss of all 29 crewmen. Lightfoot drew inspiration from news reports he gathered in the immediate aftermath, particularly "The Cruelest Month", published in Newsweek magazine's November 24, 1975, issue. Lightfoot's passion for sailing on the Great Lakes informs his verses throughout.
The single hit number 1 in his native Canada on November 20, 1976, barely a year after the disaster. In the United States, it reached number 1 on Cashbox 's ranking and number 2 for two weeks in the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Someone posted this on Facebook and it struck me. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Lightfoot but this is a towering song about a relevant event and that is what folk song is all about
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