I’m only waiting ’til the morning comes
Over my five-plus decades of collecting music, I have taken great pleasure in compiling mixed tapes, mixed CDs and Spotify playlists that address different subject matters and moods.
One of my favorite themes, first assembled in 1980 or so, was an assortment of songs about morning. I recently revisited the topic by diving into the archives, and I came up a list of available songs from the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s that focus on morning time. There are well over 100, and probably many more, from which to choose, and I’ve narrowed that down to 20 I want to share with you here, plus another 25 that earned an “honorable mention.” The playlist begins with mellow selections (as you’re just waking up) and then adds more vibrant tracks later on (after your second cup of coffee).
Wherever you find yourself in the morning, one or more of these tunes should suit your day. Enjoy!
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“Morning Morgantown,” Joni Mitchell, 1970
There are several small cities in the U.S. named Morgantown, most notably in West Viriginia, and I have no idea if Mitchell was referring to any of them in particular or just a town she imagined when she wrote this delightful piece that opens her 1970 LP “Ladies of the Canyon.” The point is, she finds a way to create a warm portrait of a village where everyone greets the day with love and kindness: “When morning comes to Morgantown, the merchants roll their awnings down, the milk trucks make their morning rounds in Morning Morgantown…”
“To the Morning,” Dan Fogelberg, 1972
At the beginning of Fogelberg’s career, he moved from his native Illinois to Nashville to record his first album with producer Norbert Putnam, who added nice touches of cellos and strings to some of the tracks. Although mostly ignored at first, the “Home Free” album eventually sold a million copies after his career took off in the late ’70s. This gorgeous song was the album’s memorable opening track: “Watching the sun, watching it come, watching it come up over the rooftops, cloudy and warm, maybe a storm, you can never quite tell from the morning, and it’s going to be a day, there is really no way to say ‘no’ to the morning…”
“Early Morning Rain,” Peter, Paul & Mary, 1965
Canadian legend Gordon Lightfoot made his mark in the U.S. as a songwriter before emerging later as a successful singer as well. One of his first songs to make the charts here was “Early Morning Rain,” in a gorgeous rendition by Peter, Paul & Mary. Lightfoot deftly conveys the loneliness of being broke and homesick: “In the early morning rain with a dollar in my hand, with an aching in my heart and my pockets full of sand, now I’m a long way from home, and I miss my loved ones so, in the early morning rain with no place to go…”
“Morning Has Broken,” Yusef/Cat Stevens, 1971
In 1931, English poet Eleanor Farjeon was asked to compose lyrics to the traditional Scottish tune “Bunessan” to create a hymn that gives thanks to the new day. By 1971, Cat Stevens decided to record the gentle piece as “Morning Has Broken,” with piano accompaniment by Rick Wakeman. It became a #6 hit in early 1972, and it’s still included in church services worldwide: “Morning has broken like the first morning, blackbird has spoken like the first bird, praise for the singing, praise for the morning, praise for them springing fresh from the world…”
“Good Morning, Heartache,” Billie Holiday, 1946
Songwriter Irene Higginbotham and lyricist Ervin Drake teamed up to write this jazz standard in 1946, and the late great Billie Holliday recorded it that same year. More than 50 other artists have covered the song, from Sam Cooke and Etta James to Natalie Cole and Tony Bennett, and Diana Ross’s version in the 1972 biopic “Lady Sings the Blues” is the best known, but I’ll take Holiday’s original any day. What a fine lyric about waking up with the blues: “Good morning, heartache, here we go again, good morning, heartache, you’re the one that knew me when, might as well get used to you hanging around, good morning, heartache, sit down…”
“Til the Morning Comes,” Neil Young, 1970
“I’m gonna give you ’til the morning comes, ’til the morning comes, I’m only waiting ’til the morning comes, ’til the morning comes…” More a tune fragment than a bonafide song, this track lasts only 1:17 and finishes side one of Young’s wonderful 1970 LP “After the Gold Rush.” The album was recorded in Young’s Topanga Canyon house with help from musicians from his periodic backing band Crazy Horse, plus Stephen Stills on vocals and an 18-year-old Nils Lofgren handling piano duties.
“Sunday Morning Coming Down,” Johnny Cash, 1970
In 1969 Kris Kristofferson wrote this classic hangover song for country artist Ray Stevens, but it’s Johnny Cash who recorded the definitive version in 1970 for his live album from “The Johnny Cash Show.” It’s a lonely piece that explores how we all search for some sort of self-fulfillment but sometimes end up alone trying to cope with the effects of the night before: “Well, I woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my head that didn’t hurt, and the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad, so I had one for dessert, then I fumbled in my closet and found my cleanest dirty shirt, and stumbled down the stairs to face the day…”
“Lazy Mornin’,” Gordon Lightfoot, 1972
Lightfoot reigns as perhaps Canada’s best-ever songwriter, with well over 250 songs to his credit. His lyrics paint vivid pictures of life and love, work and play, tough times and carefree moments. From his 1972 LP “Old Dan’s Records” is a favorite of mine called “Lazy Mornin’,” which captures the gentle feeling that often strikes us upon awakening: “Another lazy mornin’, no need to get down on anyone, my son, coffee’s in the kitchen, woman on the run, no need to get bothered, I’ll think about Monday when Monday comes…”
“A Beautiful Morning,” The Rascals, 1968
Continuing the theme of sunny optimism that marked their previous #1 hit “Groovin,” songwriters Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati of The Young Rascals came up with the joyous “A Beautiful Morning,” which became a big hit in April 1968, perhaps the happiest hippie anthem in a tumultuous year that needed all the good vibes it could get: “It’s a beautiful morning, I think I’ll go outside for a while, and just smile, just take in some clean fresh air, boy, no sense in staying inside if the weather’s fine…”
“Angel of the Morning,” The Pretenders, 1995
“If morning’s echo says we’ve sinned, it was what I wanted now, and if we’re victims of the night, I won’t be blinded by the light, just call me angel of the morning, angel, just touch my cheek before you leave me, baby…” This dramatic song, written by Chip Taylor about a woman who felt betrayed but defiant after a one-night stand, was originally a #7 hit back in 1968 for Merilee Rush. Then Judy “Juice” Newton had the biggest hit of her career with her remake of “Angel,” which peaked at #4 in 1981. I happen to think the version recorded by The Pretenders for use in a 1995 episode of “Friends” was better than either of those, thanks to a stellar delivery by Chrissie Hynde.
“Touch Me in the Morning,” Diana Ross, 1973
“If I’ve got to be strong, don’t you know I need to have tonight when you’re gone?, until you go, I need to lie here, and think about the last time that you’ll touch me in the morning…” This bonafide classic was the first success for songwriter Michael Masser, who collaborated with seasoned lyricist Ron Miller to score a #1 hit. Ross, who had young children at the time, preferred recording in all-night sessions, and this track proved especially challenging for the Motown diva before she finally nailed the take she wanted at 5 a.m. as the sun rose.
“Chelsea Morning,” Joni Mitchell, 1969
This delightful acoustic ditty, which appears on Mitchell’s second LP “Clouds” in 1969, became one of the most beloved songs in her catalog (it was the reason Bill & Hillary Clinton named their daughter Chelsea, they say). Mitchell wrote it while she was living in an apartment in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City: “Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and the first thing that I knew, there was milk and toast and honey, and a bowl of oranges too, and the sun poured in like butterscotch and stuck to all my senses…”
“Good Morning Little Schoolgirl,” Muddy Waters, 1964
Written by Sonny Boy Williamson back in 1937, this blues standard has been recorded by dozens of artists in the years since, from The Yardbirds to Van Morrison, from Johnny Winter to Widespread Panic, from Paul Butterfield to Huey Lewis. I really like the version the late blues titan Muddy Waters recorded in 1964 on his only all-acoustic album, “Muddy Waters, Folk Singer.” I love the tune, but frankly, the lyrics sound more than a little unsavory today: “Good morning little schoolgirl, can I go home with you, I’ll tell your mother and your father that I’m a little schoolboy too…”
“Meet Me in the Morning,” Bob Dylan, 1975
This simple blues tune in five verses is one of 10 superb tracks that made up Dylan’s 1975 masterpiece album “Blood on the Tracks.” They say that misery and heartbreak are excellent muses for songwriters, and this album is proof of that. At the time, Dylan was bemoaning the breakup of his marriage to Sara Lownes, and the lyrics to “Meet Me in the Morning” reflect that loss: “They say the darkest hour is right before the dawn, but you wouldn’t know it by me, every day’s been darkness since you’ve been gone…”
“When the Morning Comes,” Daryl Hall and John Oates, 1973
The Philadelphia duo became superstars in the early 1980s, but first Hall and Oates were struggling artists producing soft rock and blue-eyed soul in 1971-72. Their second LP, 1973’s “Abandoned Luncheonette,” included the gem “She’s Gone” (a hit upon re-release in 1976), and also a few other beauties like “Las Vegas Turnaround” and “When the Morning Comes: “Now I’m out in the cold, and I’m getting old, standing here waiting on you, but it’ll be all right when the morning comes…”
“Morning Dew,” Duane & Gregg Allman, 1968
A Canadian folk musician named Bonnie Dobson wrote this thought-provoking song in 1961 about a man and woman who survive a nuclear apocalypse: “Walk me out in the morning dew, no, there is no more morning dew, because what they’ve been sayin’ all these years has come true, it had to happen, you know, now there is no more morning dew…” The Grateful Dead included it on their first record in 1967, and probably the best known version is on Jeff Beck’s 1968 debut LP “Truth,” with vocals by a young Rod Stewart. But I’m partial to the version laid down by Duane and Gregg Allman for a shelved album that never saw release until 1972 after The Allman Brothers Band had become stars.
“Blue Morning, Blue Day,” Foreigner, 1978
Lou Gramm and Mick Jones collaborated many tunes in the Foreigner repertoire. One of their darker songs is this one about a musician who is troubled by a broken relationship and finds himself depressed and unable to reconcile: “Out in the street, it’s six a.m., another sleepless night, three cups of coffee, but I can’t clear my head from what went down last night…” The song reached #15 on the charts in March 1979 as the third single from Foreigner’s second LP, “Double Vision.”
“Good Morning Good Morning,” The Beatles, 1967
John Lennon claims he wrote this song one morning while eating corn flakes for breakfast and watching TV. “It was just another typical morning in 1967, and I was writing about how some days are just a drudgery — ‘going to work, don’t wanna go, feeling low down’ — and then by evening, you’re feeling better — ‘go to a show, you hope she goes.’ I wrote it very quickly. It’s a throwaway song, but I kind of like it.” It’s one of the 12 songs that comprise The Beatles’ most celebrated work, the landmark 1967 LP “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
“Monday Morning,” Fleetwood Mac, 1975
This great Lindsey Buckingham pop song kicked off the 1975 “Fleetwood Mac” album that rebooted the band’s career just as they were about to break up. Buckingham’s pop sensibility and distinctive guitar playing and vocals, combined with harmonies from Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie, gave this track the spark that turned heads from the moment you dropped the needle on that classic LP. The lyrics use days of the week to show the fleeting nature of relationships: “Monday morning you sure look fine, Friday I’ve got traveling on my mind, first you love me, then you fade away, I can’t go on believing this way…”
“One Fine Morning,” Lighthouse, 1970
While Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago were paving the way in the late ’60s and early ’70s with their use of jazz horn instruments in a rock band, a group called Lighthouse had considerable success in Canada with the same genre. Their only US hit was “One Fine Morning,” which offered a sizzling arrangement with guitar, horns and a rollicking jazz piano solo, and songwriter Skip Prokop’s sunny lyrics about a couple hoping to make their dreams come true: “One fine morning, girl, I’ll wake up, wipe the sleep from my eyes, go outside and feel the sunshine, then I know I’ll realize that as long as you love me, girl, we’ll fly…”
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Honorable mention:
“Good Morning Starshine,” Oliver, 1969; “Hour That the Morning Comes,” James Taylor, 1981; “Sometime in the Morning,” The Monkees, 1967; “Good Morning Judge,” 10CC, 1977; “Sunday Morning,” Spanky and Our Gang, 1968; “If I Don’t Be There By Morning,” Eric Clapton, 1980; “Happier Than the Morning Sun,” Stevie Wonder, 1971; “As I Went Out One Morning,” Bob Dylan, 1967; “Tears in the Morning,” Beach Boys, 1970; “Good Morning, Dear,” Roy Orbison, 1969; “Early in the Morning,” Ray Charles, 1961; “New Morning,” Bob Dylan, 1970; Good Morning Girl,” Journey, 1980; “Morning Glow,” Michael Jackson, 1973; “Cold Morning Light,” Todd Rundgren, 1972; “Woke Up This Morning,” B.B. King, 1957; “Morning Glory,” Mary Travers, 1972; “Your Love is Like the Morning Sun,” Al Green, 1973; “July Morning,” Uriah Heep, 1971; “I Woke Up in Love This Morning,” The Partridge Family, 1970..
But now it’s mid-February, the whole country is freezing their collective asses off, and sitting by a cozy fire sounds awfully nice. So let’s proceed.
“Light My Fire,” The Doors/Jose Feliciano (1967/68)
Summer of Love in 1967. Only a year later, Puerto Rican vocalist/guitarist Jose Feliciano re-recorded the song with a radically different tempo and arrangement, which reached #3. The lyrics are all about passion and pushing a relationship to the limits: “The time to hesitate is through, no time to wallow in the mire, try now, we can only lose, and our love become a funeral pyre, come on baby, light my fire, try to set the night on fire…” 
This wickedly captivating song, co-written by Bowie and film score writer Giorgio Moroder, was recorded as the theme for the 1982 Nastassja Kinski film “Cat People.” A six-minute version appeared in the film and reached #1 in several countries, and #16 in England. It was later re-recorded by Bowie and included on his 1983 hit LP “Let’s Dance.” The lyrics speak of the futility of making emotional matters worse: “Well it’s been so long, so long, so long, and I’ve been putting out fire with gasoline…”
“Great Balls of Fire,” Jerry Lee Lewis (1957)
I’m hard pressed to choose my favorite Steely Dan album, but I often find myself favoring their fabulous debut LP, “Can’t Buy a Thrill.” In addition to “Do It Again” and “Reelin’ in the Years” and the FM favorite “Dirty Work,” every other song is pretty much irresistible, even a deep track like “Fire in the Hole.” Although the phrase “fire in the hole” typically refers to an imminent detonation of explosives, that’s not the case here: “Don’t you know there’s fire in the hole, and nothing left to burn, I’d like to run out now, there’s nowhere left to turn…”
“Fire,” Crazy World of Arthur Brown (1968)
The phrase sounds rather ominous but, as the lyrics explain, it’s actually about how love can feel inescapable: “I fell into the burning ring of fire, and it burns, burns, burns, the ring of fire…” Cash wrote the song but gave credit to his second wife, June Carter Cash. Cash’s first wife, Vivian Liberto, claims Cash “was drunk one night when he wrote it about a certain female body part.” The recording topped the country charts for seven weeks, and reached #17 on the pop charts.
“Fire at Midnight,” Jethro Tull (1977)
Seger’s songs on his 1976 breakthrough LP “Night Moves” paint vivid pictures of the desperate characters that inhabit the cityscapes of mid-’70s America, notably on “Main Street” and the title track. In “The Fire Down Below,” he writes about the shady desires of all types of men who stalk the night, looking for willing young women: “There go the street lights, bringin’ on the night, here come the men, faces hidden from the light, all through the shadows, they come and they go, with only one thing in common, they got the fire down below…”
During the California Gold Rush of 1859, prospectors dreaming of making it rich would often use the phrase “fire on the mountain” to connote the gold lying hidden in the hills. The Marshall Tucker Band wrote and recorded “Fire in the Mountain” as a sad story-song about just such a family of Carolina dreamers: “Six long months on a dust-covered trail, they say heaven’s at the end, but so far it’s been hell, and there’s fire on the mountain, and lightning in the air, gold in them hills and it’s waiting for me there…”
After hearing a 21-year-old in 1988 complain that the problems of that period were worse than anything in history, Joel wrote this song about how the world has had problems since the beginning of time. “Every decade, every century, has had problems, and I decided to rattle off the things I’d experienced during my lifetime (1949-1989),” Joel said, with each verse concluding, “We didn’t start the fire, it was always burning, since the world’s been turning, we didn’t start the fire, no, we didn’t light it, but we tried to fight it…”
“Fire and Ice,” Pat Benatar (1981)
In 1984, Bono was deeply moved by an art museum exhibit by victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It inspired him to write what became the title track of U2’s compelling, transitional LP “The Unforgettable Fire,” which set the stage for 1987’s multi-platinum “The Joshua Tree.” Bono’s lyrics speak darkly and cryptically about the effects of the most horrific use of fire in world history: “Ice, your only rivers run cold, these city lights, they shine as silver and gold, dug from the night, your eyes as black as coal, walk on by, walk on through, walk ’til you run and don’t look back…” 
The Boss wrote the smoldering, passionate “Fire” with Elvis Presley in mind, but Presley died before he had a chance to record it. Still, Springsteen often performed “Fire” in concert, and it became an audience favorite, although he never released his studio version until “The Promise” in 2010. The R&B vocal 
group The Pointer Sisters recorded their own version in 1979, changing the lyrics to the female point of view, and had a #2 hit. Either way, the lyrics are about a will-she-or-won’t-she standoff between boy and girl: “I’m riding in your car, you turn on the radio, you’re pulling me close, I just say no, I say I don’t like it, but you know Im a liar, ’cause when we kiss, oooh, fire!…”
When Nicks made her fourth solo LP, “The Other Side of the Mirror,” she worked with British producer/musician Rupert Hine, recording and mixing in an historic castle outside London, and they ended up in a stormy relationship. “Whenever Rupert walked into one of those old dark castle rooms, it seemed that the room was on fire,” she said. “It was a little spooky.” Her song about that experience reached #16 on the charts: “Well, maybe I’m just thinking that the rooms are all on fire every time that you walk in the room, well, there is magic all around you, if I do say so myself, I have known this much longer than I’ve known you…”
Harry Nilsson is best known for melodic acoustic songs, but this hard rock track from his hit LP “Nilsson Schmilsson” became a favorite for its frenetic, relentless beat and Nilsson’s screaming vocals. It was used in 1990’s Martin Scorsese film “Goodfellas” to accompany a pivotal scene depicting Ray Liotta’s cocaine-induced paranoia: “You can climb a mountain, you can swim the sea, you can jump into the fire, but you’ll never be free…”
Maurice White, the leader of EW&F, was a big believer in spiritual enlightenment and yoga practices. “A person’s spiritual energy is often referred to as a serpentine fire,” he said. “It’s the fire in your spine, the forced that guides your vitality and makes you unique.” “Serpentine Fire” became a #13 hit for the group in 1977: “I want to see your face in the morning, sun, ignite my energy, the cause and effect of you has brought new meaning in my life to me, gonna tell the story, morning glory, all about the serpentine fire…”
The maxim “If you play with fire, you’ll get burned” is the inspiration for this early Stones song. The Jagger-Richards songwriting team composed several songs that disparaged the temptress-like behavior of certain wealthy British women, and warned that they might regret it one day: “Well, you’ve got your diamonds and you’ve got your pretty clothes, and the chauffeur drives your car, you let everybody know, but don’t play with me, ’cause you’re playing with fire…”
One of the earliest examples of a vocoder in a hit pop song can be found on this lush, uplifting track by Kenny Loggins, on the 1980 album of the same name. He and his then-wife Eva Ein collaborated on the lyrics, which use the metaphor of fire to urge perseverance when things become challenging: “Where’s your vision if the embers flicker out, don’t let it slip from view, the horizons are waiting, so keep the fire burning tonight, for tonight, just keep the fire burning bright…” 
No one was ready for the jolt that Jimi Hendrix brought to the rock/pop music scene when he released his psychedelic “Are You Experienced?” debut LP in the summer of 1967. The album is full of milestone recordings (“Purple Haze,” “The Wind Cries Mary” “Foxy Lady”), but let’s not forget “Fire,” his red-hot rocker about sexual desire and burning love: “You say your mum ain’t home, it ain’t my concern, just play with me and you won’t get burned, I have only one itching desire, let me stand next to your fire…”
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