My formulation, however, makes Denver sound like a careerist and a cynic. I suspect quite the opposite was true. Listening to his music and reading about his life - hell, even gazing at his cute-as-a-button photographs - lends me the strong impression that John Denver meant every word he warbled, and that his frothy folk sprung from the very depths of his soul. And that, more than any cultural zeitgeist, explains why he sold more records than almost anyone during a decade that prized self-expression over artistic achievement.

Which is not to say that John Denver's music is without merit. It is, though I recommend digesting it in small doses. He recorded roughly 30 albums in almost as many years, and only a few of those albums merit consideration for individual purchase. Mainly, these are the ones he recorded during the peak of his popularity from 1971-1975 - especially Poems, Prayers, and Promises (1971), Rocky Mountain High (1972), and Back Home Again (1974). Most consumers, however, will be best served by Denver's monster-selling Greatest Hits (1973) - remastered with bonus tracks in 2005 - or later, more expansive packages like Definitive All-Time Greatest Hits (2004).

For many, though, Denver's music warrants a larger investment, and the thoughtfully-packaged double-disc Rocky Mountain Collection (1996) - or more less lavish, more affordable Essential John Denver (2007) - would be the next logical step. My personal choice, though, was RCA's deluxe 4-CD set, The Country Roads Collection (1997). This handsome box is the only Denver retrospective to capture all 21 essential songs listed below. All of them, sadly, ignore Denver's Christmas catalog (read more), spanning four albums - two of them Top 30 - plus two Top 100 singles.

So, how did such a moderately talented, genuinely nice guy end up on top of the pop heap? Well, Denver's climb to stardom may have been meteoric, but he paid his dues well. Born Henry John Deutschendorf in Roswell, New Mexico, the future mountain man spent his youth as a rootless Air Force brat, and he dove headlong into the L.A. folk music scene in 1964 after a brief stint at Texas Tech University. It was there - at the urging of New Christy Minstrel Randy Sparks - that he adopted the name Denver. Though he was considered for membership in the nascent Byrds, Denver caught his first big break when he joined a latter-day version of the Chad Mitchell Trio, singing protest songs for old-school, left-leaning folkies.

Before the group broke up for good (Denver was Mitchell's replacement, actually), they recorded one of John's early compositions, "Leaving On A Jet Plane," in 1967. The song was quickly covered by the popular folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary on their Album 1700, but the single didn't take off till 1969 - just as John Denver was releasing his solo debut, Rhymes & Reasons. The fortuitous happenstance helped place Denver in the public eye, but his career didn't really ignite till "Take Me Home Country Roads" (from Poems, Prayers, and Promises, his third album) became a smash hit.

Cowritten and recorded with Fat City (Bill & Taffy Danoff, later of the Starland Vocal Band), "Country Roads," with its story of spiritual awakening and reverence for nature, reflected Denver's newfound lifestyle. John and his family (including wife Annie, later immortalized in "Annie's Song") had settled in Aspen, Colorado, in 1970, and the rugged beauty of his surroundings imbued Denver's lyrics with purpose. Denver's best early songs (such as "Follow Me") had placed an emphasis on his emotional and interpersonal life (exempting, that is, miscues like "The Ballad Of Spiro Agnew"). But now, Denver began to espouse a way of life based simple and wholesome things - harmony with the earth, the love of family, a sense of community.

But, judging from the evidence at hand, John Denver was also an ambitious man altogether willing to stroke the star-making machinery. Under the guidance of powerful Hollywood agent Jerry Weintraub, the former Mr. Deutschendorf became a true media star. In addition to scoring five Top 10 albums and seven Top 10 singles - including seven chart toppers - between 1971 and 1975, Denver was a fixture on magazine covers, on television (winning an Emmy for An Evening with John Denver in 1975), and, eventually, in movies (Oh God, 1977). Ambition is no crime, but by the time John Denver recorded Perhaps Love (1981) with Placido Domingo - Placido Domingo! - his last shred of counterculture credibility had all but evaporated.

It was Denver's artistic compliance, however, that proved his real downfall. After "Country Roads" peaked, the singer failed to garner much airplay with Aerie (1971), which nevertheless featured several fine songs. After the tree-hugging title track from Rocky Mountain High reached the Top 10 in late 1972, Denver's relative slump resumed throughout much of 1973, during which he released his under-appreciated, western-themed album Farewell Andromeda. Following the Christmas release of Greatest Hits (featuring largely re-recorded versions of early compositions), "Sunshine On My Shoulders" - originally recorded for Poems, Prayers, and Promises - became Denver's first #1 hit in January, 1974. The game was on.

Yet another earth-worshipping ballad, "Sunshine" and its success seemed to flip a switch in John's mop-haired, bespectacled noggin. Like a Pavlovian pop star, Denver learned what his audience wanted, and he gave them more of it. Thereafter, Denver's back-to-nature schtick grew ever more blunt. The distance between the metaphysical yearning of "Rocky Mountain High" and the gratuitous pandering of "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" is vast, yet Denver made the journey in just three short years. Pandering has its rewards, though, and Denver made a mint. Back Home Again (1974), An Evening with John Denver (1975), and Windsong (1975) sold oodles and ruled the charts, collectively generating eight hit singles. Even Rocky Mountain Christmas (read more) - released just one month after Windsong - earned a gold record award!

John Denver had become the anti-Elton, an eager-to-please pop star for people who dreamed of living the healthy, happy lifestyle he sang about. In reality, however, the bulk of his devotees worked in dead-end jobs in dingy cities, subsisting on Hamburger Helper and Happy Days. Feeding their desperate, spiritual hunger must have been exhausting and, clearly, Denver's music reflected this malaise. With the teeming throngs clawing for his attention, Denver was "Looking For Space," eager to "Fly Away." A compilation of old songs, Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (1977), was his last major hit album, and "My Sweet Lady" - recorded way back in 1971 - was his last Top 40 hit of the decade when re-released in 1977. The masses, growing restless, moved on. It was time to get up and boogie and, later, get pissed and pogo.

Overwork and overexposure took it's toll on John Denver's music, career, and personal life. His chart presence was severely curtailed, and he and Annie eventually divorced. However, before meeting a violent fate in an experimental aircraft crash in 1997 (Denver was an avid flyer), he seemed to reach a happy plateau. He released the occasional album (often on his own label, Windstar), wrote his autobiography (Take Me Home, 1994), and devoted himself to environmental and humanitarian causes. Hearing him commune with his following on later live albums like The Wildlife Concert (1995) or Christmas In Concert (1996), one gets the sense of a man comfortable in his own skin and satisfied with his art. John Denver's legacy - musical and otherwise - continues to inspire many. As evidenced by singer/songwriters like Alison Krauss, Ben Harper, Norah Jones, and David Gray, there continues to be an large audience for the sort of music Denver popularized - just rarely on MTV or Top 40 radio.[top of page]