b. 1943 · Canadian singer-songwriter, painter and guitarist
Mitchell wrote “Both Sides, Now” by late 1966 — she was performing it at the Second Fret in Philadelphia on 17 November that year — before she had a record of her own out, and it travelled through other people’s hands first. Her own recording arrived on Clouds, issued by Reprise on 1 May 1969 — an album she produced herself apart from one track, and which reached number 31 on the Billboard 200 and won the Grammy for Best Folk Performance. She has since re-recorded the song more than once, most famously in an orchestral setting in 2000. She is the author here, and unambiguously so; the only thing she is not is the first act to get it onto a record.