Anyway, the following story was told, and I checked it out, apparently it's true.
As a preface, I read last week that Ryan O'Neal, the long time partner of Farrah Fawcett, had repeatedly asked her to marry him, and over the years she always said no. On her deathbed, she apparently said yes, which I think is either the saddest or most romantic thing I've ever heard.
So, onto the story. Back in the early 70s, a songwriter named Jim Weatherly played in a touch-football sports league in LA, with an up-and-coming actor named Lee Majors.
Here he is in The Fall Guy.
Remember him now?
Anyway, Weatherly wanted to get in touch with Majors and called his apartment, and the phone was answered by Farrah Fawcett, who was dating Majors at the time. They had a chat and she said that she wouldn't see Majors to pass on a message because she was taking a midnight plane to Houston.
Weatherly took the line and wrote a song around it, releasing Midnight Plane to Houston on a country label where it sunk without trace. Cissy Houston, mother of Whitney, was recording an album in Atlanta at the time and her producer liked the song, but didn't want Cissy to sing a song with her own last name in the title, so they changed it to Georgia, and since the character following her man in the song would have many more chances to change her mind if she was taking a train, they changed that, too.
Houston released Midnight Train to Georgia in 1972. It also sunk without trace, so Weatherly sent the newly titled song to Gladys Knight, who recorded and released it in 1973 - and it became her first number one.
I just found it odd that such a great song should have been through so many famous hands, that's all.
That and, even since before I knew Jen, I love this song - it never fails to move me, which is one of the many reasons why we put it on our wedding playlist - but not Gladys' version - we used the Indigo Girls, so here you go...
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