"Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)" is a song written by John D. Loudermilk. It was first recorded in 1959 by Marvin Rainwater and released as "The Pale Faced Indian". Rainwater's MGM release stayed unnoticed. The first hit version was a 1968 cover by Don Fardon, a former member of The Sorrows, that reached #20 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and #3 on the UK Singles Chart.
In 1971 the Raiders recorded the song; singer Mark Lindsay's ancestors were of Cherokee blood. This recording was released on the Columbia Records label and became #1 on the U.S. chart on July 24. The RIAA gold certification followed on 30 June 1971, for selling over a million copies. It was later certified platinum for selling an additional million copies. Some have said that guitarist Freddy Weller sang lead on the song, but Lindsay (the Raiders' usual lead vocalist) was actually responsible for the lead vocal track as well as producing the recording, which was originally planned as a solo Mark Lindsay effort.
The UK punk band, 999, released a cover version on 14 November 1981 on the Albion Ion label, and it reached #51 in the UK chart. The song was later further covered by the Orlando Riva Sound.
A 1994 country song by Tim McGraw, "Indian Outlaw", ends with part of the main "Cherokee people" chorus from "Indian Reservation". The live version also uses the full chorus near the end of the song.
Read more about Indian Reservation (The Lament Of The Cherokee Reservation Indian): Historical Context, Music and Lyric Form, Chart Run
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... Billboard Hot 100 (22 weeks, entered April 10) Reached #1 on July 24 (1 week) Cashbox (20 weeks, entered May 1) 98, 89, 62, 50, 41, 33, 17, 13, 7, 3, 2, 2, 1, 4, 6, 5, 22, 34, 33, 55 Preceded by "It's Too Late" / "I Feel the Earth Move" by Carole King Billboard Hot 100 number one single (The Raiders version) July 24, 1971 (one week) Succeeded by "You've Got a Friend" by James Taylor. ...
Famous quotes containing the words cherokee, lament, indian and/or reservation:
“Long accustomed to the use of European manufactures, [the Cherokee Indians] are as incapable of returning to their habits of skins and furs as we are, and find their wants the less tolerable as they are occasioned by a war [the American Revolution] the event of which is scarcely interesting to them.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“The Word in the desert
Is most attacked by voices of temptation,
The crying shadow in the funeral dance,
The loud lament of the disconsolate chimera.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“There was so much of the Indian accent resounding through his English, so much of the “bow-arrow tang” as my neighbor calls it.... It was a wild and refreshing sound, like that of the wind among the pines, or the booming of the surf on the shore.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Music is so much a part of their daily lives that if an Indian visits another reservation one of the first questions asked on his return is: “What new songs did you learn?””
—Federal Writers’ Project Of The Wor, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)