Chelsea Morning

"Chelsea Morning"
Single by Judy Collins
B-side	Pretty Polly
Released	April 1969 (1969-04)[1]
Format	7" 45 rpm
Recorded	Elektra Sound Recorders, Los Angeles, 1968 (1968)
Genre	Folk rock
Length	03:15
Label	Elektra
Writer(s)	Joni Mitchell
Producer	David Anderle

"Chelsea Morning" is a song written by Joni Mitchell. The two best known versions are arguably Mitchell's own recording of the song, which appeared on her 1969 album Clouds, and Judy Collins' recording, which she released as a single during the summer of 1969^[2].

"Chelsea Morning" was actually written before the release of her first album, but was not recorded by Mitchell until Clouds, partly because it had already been released by other artists. Collins recorded her version during the 1968 sessions for Who Knows Where the Time Goes (though the song did not appear on that album).

The song was inspired by Mitchell's room in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. The inspiration for the first verse comes partly from the distinct décor of her apartment. While in Philadelphia, Mitchell and friends had made a mobile from shards of colored glass they had found in the street and wire coat hangers, which filtered the light coming into her room through the window and created the "rainbow on the wall". ^[3] During coffeehouse performances of this song in the late 1960s, Mitchell explained that the famous stained glass was rescued from the salvaged windows of a demolished home for unwed mothers.^{[citation needed]}

The lyrics of this song demonstrate Mitchell's talent with imagery, and her strong use of visual inspiration which come from her background in visual art. "The sun poured in like butterscotch and stuck to all my senses." Mitchell, in regards to "Chelsea Morning", in 1996 stated, "It was a very young and lovely time ... before I had a record deal. I think it's a very sweet song, but I don't think of it as part of my best work. To me, most of those early songs seem like the work of an ingenue."^[3]

British folk-rock group Fairport Convention released the song on their eponymous debut album in June 1968^[4]. Neil Diamond also covered the song, as did the Sergio Mendes group, Brasil '66, and others. The song is also part of the soundtrack for the movie After Hours. A little-known pop-rock group, Green Lyte Sunday, with vocalist Susan Darby, hit the top 20 on Billboard's Easy Listening Top 40 in 1970, a few months prior to the Sergio Mendes cover.

Bill and Hillary Clinton have stated that their daughter Chelsea is named for the song^[4] as performed by Judy Collins.^[5] Collins performed the song at President Clinton's 1993 Inaugural ball.

References

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