Remembering Gordon Lightfoot, BHS Honorary Life Member
The Barbershop Harmony Society mourns the passing of Gordon Lightfoot (1938-2023), the legendary Canadian folk singer, song writer — and Barbershopper.
As a youth growing up in Orillia, Ontario, Gordon counted among his musical influences George Shields, the BHS Hall of Famer, who remained a mentor and friend throughout his life. Gordon sang in several quartets in his teens, including the Collegiate Four and The Teentimers.
![Gordon Lightfoot in the Teentimers, 1955](https://files.barbershop.org/1955_Gordon_Lightfoot_hzr_highlight2.jpg)
His distinctive voice and heartfelt lyrical craftsmanship brought him artistic acclaim and widespread popularity as a recording artist and performer, with numerous chart hits through the 1970s, perhaps most famously “The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald.”
In 2006, in recognition of a long career that “celebrates the human voice as a means of artistic expression and sharing stories about the human experience,” Gordon Lightfoot was named an Honorary Life Member of the Barbershop Harmony Society.