The word “snowbird” means different things to different people. To some, it describes the northerners, mainly older folk, who travel south to winter in warmer climes. Snowbirds typically come from Canada or Minnesota or some other place suitably cold and snowy and spend the winter in Florida or Arizona or some other place suitably warm and snowless.
For the purposes of today’s discussion, however, the word “snowbird” refers to a literal bird that is seen chiefly in northern climes, such as the junco or the snow bunting. During warmer months they might migrate as far south as southern Canada or the northern United States, but they prefer it where it’s cooler and with shorter daylight hours.
Today’s classic song of the day refers, I believe, to this latter literal snowbird. “Snowbird” was released as a single by Canadian singer Anne Murray in June of 1970. It was a #1 hit on the Canadian Country Tracks chart and Billboard’s U.S. Easy Listening chart. It peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, #6 on the Cash Box Top 100, #10 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, and #2 on Canada’s Top Singles mainstream pop chart.
“Snowbird” was written by Canadian singer-songwriter Gene MacLellan. He and Anne Murray met in 1970 when they were both regulars on the Canadian television series Singalong Jubilee. MacLellan supposedly wrote the song “in twenty minutes while walking on a beach on Prince Edward Island.”
The song “Snowbird” is about mourning the loss of a lover and wishing the titular snowbird would take her loss and fly it away:
Spread your tiny wings and fly away
And take the snow back with you where it came from on that day
The one I love forever is untrue
And if I could you know that I would fly away with you
“Snowbird” was Anne Murray’s first big hit. It did a good job bridging the adult contemporary and country genres, and helped establish Ms. Murray as a major artist both in her native Canada and here in the States. She was just 25 years old when “Snowbird” hit it big, and she went on to have more than two dozen top twenty hits in Canada, many of which also hit it big here south of the border. These hits included “A Love Song,” “What About Me,” “You Won’t See Me,” “You Needed Me,” “I Just Fall in Love Again,” “Broken Hearted Me,” , and covers of Kenny Loggins’ “Danny’s Song” and the Monkees’ “Daydream Believer.” Her hitmaking continued well into the 1990s; over a period of several decades she garnered four Grammy Awards, including two for “Snowbird”—Best New Artist and Best Contemporary Vocal Performance. She also won a record 24 Juno Awards in her native Canada.
Anne Murray retired from performing in 2008. She’s currently living a quiet life in Nova Scotia, at 80 years of age.
Which leads us to today’s daily bonus video of the day, Anne Murray performing “Snowbird” live on on the February 4, 1972, episode of The David Frost Show. She’s hard to dislike; her voice is velvet.
