Gordon Lightfoot’s band had never played his new song before. They hadn’t even heard it. But in December 1975, with unused studio time left on the clock while recording his 1976 album Summertime Dream ...

Dave Strandberg, the first DJ to play Gordon Lightfoot's song in the city — and, likely, one of the first in the country — said "the phones basically lit up" when he dropped the needle. A detail view ...