About The Song

“Annie’s Song” was released as a single from John Denver’s album Back Home Again. It went on to become his second No. 1 song in the United States, dominating that spot for two weeks in July 1974.  The song also reached No. 1 on the Easy Listening chart as well as in the United Kingdom, while Billboard ranked it as the No. 25 song for 1974.

Written by John Denver himself, “Annie’s Song” was an ode to Denver’s then-wife Annie Martell Denver after their first separation and the impending break up of their marriage in 1974. “You fill up my senses. Like a night in a forest. Like the mountains in springtime. Like a walk in the rain. Like a storm in the desert. Like a sleepy blue ocean. You fill up my senses. Come fill me again,” the song goes.

Denver once revealed that “Annie’s Song” was one of the fastest songs he has ever written, composing it in about ten minutes while riding on a ski lift in Aspen, Colorado. During the ride, he reflected on all the joy he found in his marriage and his relief that they were back together. “Suddenly, I’m hypersensitive to how beautiful everything is,” Denver wrote. “All of these things filled up my senses, and when I said this to myself, unbidden images came one after the other. All of the pictures merged, and I was left with Annie. That song was the embodiment of the love I felt at that time.”

Annie has also recalled the day Denver wrote the song. “It was written after John and I had gone through a pretty intense time together, and things were pretty good for us,” Annie said. He left to go skiing, and he got on the Ajax chair on Aspen mountain, and the song just came to him. He skied down and came home and wrote it down… Initially, it was a love song, and it was given to me through him, and yet for him, it became a bit like a prayer.”

“Annie’s Song” has received positive reviews from music critics. Shawn M. Haney of Allmusic, for instance, noted the song’s expressive emotionality. He called it an “ever so romantic tearjerker,” and praised it as “one of Denver’s finest achievements.” Billboard, on the other hand, called it a “fine love song.”

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Lyric

🎵 Let’s sing along with the lyrics! 🎤

You fill up my senses like a night in the forest,
like the mountains in springtime, like a walk in the rain,
like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean.
You fill up my senses, come fill me again.
Come let me love you, let me give my life to you,
let me drown in your laughter, let me die in your arms,
let me lay down beside you, let me always be with you.
Come let me love you, come love me again.
You fill up my senses like a night in the forest,
like the mountains in springtime, like a walk in the rain,
like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean.
You fill up my senses, come fill me again.

10 thoughts on “Flashback to “Annie’s Song,” One of John Denver’s Finest Achievements”
  1. I came to Colorado in a Military assignment to Fort Carson in Colorado Springs. Also Discovered Aspen, having learned to Ski in Germany, I went to Aspen to ski. I stopped in at a Resturant there called Little Annie’s . While waiting to be served I looked around and saw two men playing guitars and singing softly. I asked who they were. I was told that’s John Denver and some guy named Johnny something. I listened to him sing and loved his music ever since. I saw him in Consert some years later in Munich, Germany. I had all his records at one time. His music still soothes my soul at 83.

  2. This song has brought back so many memories. March 2023 will mark four years without the love of my life, my true love and the love at first sight. We had so much fun during our time together and it was the simple things that us even more together. I was in my 20’s and he in his 30’s when we started our first water fight which was not our last LOL. Thank you for reminding me of those happy times. God bless you.

  3. Love his music. I worked with John’s mother Irma at the University of Colorado
    Medical center pediatric clinics in 1975
    Still play his music in Colo.

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