The first two photos are the original lyrics to “Gentle On My Mind,” written by John Hartford. Quickly composed after a night out at the movies, it has been recorded over 400 times by a mind-boggling list of artists including Glen Campbell, Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby & Count Basie, Leonard Nemoy (aka Mr. Spock), Alison Krauss, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Lou Rawls, Tammy Wynette, John Denver, R.E.M., Lucinda Williams, Englebert Humperdink, Burl Ives, Ashley Campbell (Glen’s daughter), The Band Perry, and many, many others (you can click on the names to hear their version of the song.) It’s won a total of five Grammy awards in two different decades, and ranks number 16 on BMI’s “Top 100 Songs of the Century.”

The third image is the fiddle version of the song, found in the sixty-eight personal music journals that John kept in the last two decades of his life. Once you’ve written a song like “Gentle On My Mind,” you’re obligated to perform it at every show you play thereafter for the rest of your days, so you have to keep it fresh. You can compare John’s original version from 1967, and this later version from his performance at David Holt’s American Music Shop in the 80s to see how he did that.

Special thanks to Kevin Fleming, John Fabke, and the folks at The Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum for archiving the original lyrics, and to Greg Reish and The Center for Popular Music for archiving the fiddle journals; these folks are keeping the history alive.

Betty Harford-Gilbert was the very first person to have ever heard the song, “Gentle On My Mind,” and is the only person still around who can speak first-hand about the night it was written…

“The year was 1966.  Only one year earlier, John and I had loaded up our 60’ Nashua mobile home and had it transported to Nashville, TN…1404 Lebanon Rd. We followed in a packed Chevy station wagon with our three-month old son, Jamie.  After three years of moving around Missouri and Illinois, we were finally where we had always hoped to be.  His new late-night DJ job at WSIX and my secretarial job at Glaser Publications paved the way.

My uncle, Jimmy Payne, lived a short time with us and offered that evening to babysit our then-toddler, Jamie.  John and I took the rare opportunity to go to a movie.  Friends Bob and Jan Eggers came by and picked us up and we met Jim and Jane Glaser at the theatre.  The movie was Dr. Zhivago.

In the car on the way back home, we discussed the movie and I could see that it had profoundly impacted John, and me as well. Though it was very late when we returned, Jamie and Uncle Jimmy were still up!  I think they were having fun, but then Jamie always did resist going to bed.

While I attended to getting Jamie settled, John asked if I minded if he went into his room and jotted a few ideas down.  His ‘room’ was the other bedroom in the trailer…our bedroom was for the three of us.  John needed space for his musical instruments, books, microphones and tape recorders…two in fact, one for over-dubbing. His craft. I understood.

Within 30 minutes, while I waited on the sofa for him, John emerged with his guitar and a yellow legal pad in hand.  “Tell me what you think of this”. He then sang “Gentle On My Mind” all the way through.  It was so different from anything he had written previously. I knew immediately that, along with being very beautiful, it was also very important.  

The next day John took a rough demo of his new song to Chuck Glaser who  quickly recognized that it was something special.  He and John went down the back stairway of 801 16th Avenue South, through the alley and to Chet Adkins’ office at RCA Victor.  Chet played the demo for producer, Felton Jarvis, and John was subsequently given a three-album contract with RCA.  John had written a witty little song about my mother’s new washing machine when we lived in St. Louis and it was decided to put this on the flip side of a single. Within weeks John was in Studio B with Nashville musicians, recording “Gentle On My Mind” for the A side and “Washing Machine” for the B side.  RCA had not only wanted John’s song; they wanted John to record it!  This was especially gratifying to John because he had often been discouraged from singing!

John was instructed by Chet Adkins to write ‘another’ Gentle On My Mind.  His counter was “Today”, as a nod to the Beatles “Yesterday.”  Over the new few months John produced enough new songs to fill all three RCA albums.

That was the night, an ordinary movie night for a young couple, that changed the lives of the Harford family and impacted many thousands more.”

— Betty Harford-Gilbert