Released 1973 Recorded 1972 Length 04:10 | Format 7" single Genre Rock, soft rock | |
B-side "The Writing's On the Wall" | ||
"Wildflower" is a song written by Doug Edwards and Dave Richardson in 1972. First performed by the Canadian band Skylark, it has been covered by many artists and more recently has been sampled in a number of hip hop songs.
Contents
The title, "Wildflower", is not mentioned in the song. The closest line to the title occurs as the final line of the repeated chorus: "She's a free and gentle flower growing wild".
Skylark recording
Doug Edwards was a member of Skylark, and Dave Richardson was a friend of band member and organizer David Foster. "Wildflower" was a song which Edwards composed after reading Richardson's poem; the song was included on the band's demo tape. Barry De Vorzon, by 1972 an established music business name, heard the demo tape and was convinced that the song would be a big hit. After the demo was rejected by several studios, an executive at Capitol Records signed the band and the song was included on their eponymous first album. The initial single released from the album was not successful. Rosalie Trombley, a music director at CKLW, a Canadian radio station in Windsor, Ontario, played "Wildflower", at that time an album cut, repeatedly for three months in an effort to satisfy the Canadian government's requirements for Canadian content. During that period, it was the only radio station in North America to have the song on its playlist. Capitol decided to release the song in neighboring Detroit as a regional release, where it became a huge soul hit before breaking out nationally and crossing over to the pop charts. Eventually "Wildflower" spent 21 weeks on the Billboard pop chart. The song proved to be extremely popular in Canada as well; it ultimately peaked at number 10 on the RPM Top Singles chart, and number 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Total sales of the single exceeded one million copies, and it was included on their second album as well, at the request of Capitol Records executives who sought to capitalize on the song's success. Ultimately, the song was their only single to chart in the United States.
Other versions
"Wildflower" has been covered by many artists, including Color Me Badd, Hank Crawford, Johnny Mathis, Lisa Fischer, Gary Morris, New Birth, The O'Jays, Marlena Shaw, Lana Wolf, and Silk. The Gary Morris version of the song was released as a single in 1986, and reached number 21 on the RPM Adult Contemporary chart in February of that year. The Hank Crawford recording of "Wildflower" was sampled by Tupac Shakur on his song "Shorty Wanna Be a Thug" and by Kanye West and Paul Wall on their song "Drive Slow"; This track was used by a young Eminem on The Slim Shady EP in 1997 with the track "No One's Iller". The Hank Crawford cover was also more recently sampled by Boi-1da on the Lil Wayne Feature "Miss Me" from labelmate Drake's debut album Thank Me Later and in 2009 by J. Cole for his track "Dreams" from his mixtape The Warm Up.