“Help Me Make it Through the Night” is a country music ballad written and composed by Kris Kristofferson and released on his 1970 album Kristofferson. Though it was recorded by Elvis Presley in 1971, four others recorded it in 1971: Joan Baez, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Jerry Lee Lewis, and country singer Sammi Smith, whose recording of the song is the most commercially successful and most well-known version in the United States. Smith’s recording ranks among the most successful country singles of all time in terms of sales, popularity and radio airplay. Her recording topped the country singles chart, and was also a crossover hit, reaching number eight on the U.S. pop singles chart. (More from Wikipedia)
Kris Kristofferson is probably better known as a songwriter – such as Janis Joplin’s posthumous hit song, “Me and Bobby McGee”, plus “For the Good Times” (a hit by Ray Price, among others), “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” (recorded by Johnny Cash) and “Help Me Make it Through the Night” (Sammi Smith’s version being the most successful), which were all #1 hits on one Billboard or Canadian chart or other – or as an actor in dozens of films, such as Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, A Star Is Born, the Blade films, and The Motel Life. He has a rough-and-tumble reputation as a hard-liver, and in part, that fuels his interest in spiritual matters. Jesus has clearly been on his mind over the years; his album names include Jesus Was a Capricorn (simply an observation that Christmas Day falls within that astrological sign).
(July 2014)
