Uploaded November 2015 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
This folk ballad, by Canadian singer/writer Gordon Lightfoot, is a factual account of the sinking of the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior in November, 1975. The ship was considered a workhorse setting seasonal haul records six times, and often breaking her own previous record. The single release version of "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" in 1976 hit #1 in Canada, #1 on the US Cashbox, and #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Based on the melody from an old Irish folk song, the lyrics contain a few omissions and paraphrases due to initial assumptions about the cause of the wreck, and the record producer removing his writer's block allowing Lightfoot to play to his artistic strengths. Gordon Lighfoot's music career has spanned more than five decades, producing more than 200 recordings, and helped define the folk-pop sound of the 1960's and 1970's that made him international folk-rock legend. Years later,after the Fitzgerald was found, the ship's bell was recovered and moved to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum as a memorial to her lost crew. It was most likely the force of a rouge wave, possibly 30 to 40 feet high, that hit the ship on the surface causing it to break in half.
This folk ballad, by Canadian singer/writer Gordon Lightfoot, is a factual account of the sinking of the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior in November, 1975. The ship was considered a workhorse setting seasonal haul records six times, and often breaking her own previous record. The single release version of "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" in 1976 hit #1 in Canada, #1 on the US Cashbox, and #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Based on the melody from an old Irish folk song, the lyrics contain a few omissions and paraphrases due to initial assumptions about the cause of the wreck, and the record producer removing his writer's block allowing Lightfoot to play to his artistic strengths. Gordon Lighfoot's music career has spanned more than five decades, producing more than 200 recordings, and helped define the folk-pop sound of the 1960's and 1970's that made him international folk-rock legend. Years later,after the Fitzgerald was found, the ship's bell was recovered and moved to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum as a memorial to her lost crew. It was most likely the force of a rouge wave, possibly 30 to 40 feet high, that hit the ship on the surface causing it to break in half.
