1975 John Denver – Sweet Surrender
Sometimes, when an artist has a long stretch of top hit records, radio often ignores the singles that only reach the middle of the Top Forty.
John Denver became a member of the Chad Mitchell Trio in 1965, replacing Chad. The group then appeared as The Mitchell Trio. While the group failed to reach the Hot 100 after Chad’s departure, they did record a song that John had originally written and recorded as a solo artist: Leaving On A Jet Plane.
John left the trio and recorded a new version of the song for a solo album in 1969, but hopes for a hit got buried when it became a number one hit for Peter, Paul, and Mary.
Two more solo albums and four singles followed in 1970, again, with little impact. 1970 brought a new album with the #2 single Take Me Home, Country Roads. Seven more singles followed in the next two years, but only Rocky Mountain High reached the top forty.
One of his chart-topping singles was Annie’s Song (“You fill up my senses”), which became his only single to chart in the UK…where it also reached the top of the chart.
John finally found his groove, and beginning with the song Sunshine on My Shoulders in late 1973, he released four singles that topped the Hot 100 and another that reached #5.
In the middle of all that success, he also released Sweet Surrender, a single that stalled at #13 in 1975. Radio stations appear to have misplaced their copies of the record.
While John charted eight more top ten singles on the Adult Contemporary chart, his last three top forty singles on the pop chart finished their runs at 29, 36, and 32.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Denver
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Denver_discography#1960s_and_1970s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Surrender_(John_Denver_song)
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