Happy Birthday: John Prine

Today we celebrate the birthday of one of the great singer-songwriters to emerge during the 1970s John Prine, who – though he’s now in his seventies – continues to live the life of a road warrior, crooning his tunes in concert halls around the world.

To commemorate the occasion of his birth, we’ve put together a list of five tracks written by Prine that have been recorded by other artists over the years, and while it wasn’t specifically our intent to do so, we can’t help but notice that every one of the vocalists on this list is female. It takes a true poet to be able to pen songs that can be easily interpreted by just about anyone, and boy, does that sentiment sum up John Prine perfectly.

1. Bette Midler, “Hello in There”
2. Jackie DeShannon, “Paradise"
3. Bonnie Raitt, “Angel from Montgomery”
4. Nanci Griffith, “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness”
5. 10,000 Maniacs, “Hello in There”