I think it was Anthony Bourdain who found himself in a car with a bunch of intoxicated Asians, when everyone started singing John Denver’s Country Roads. The song featured in Kingsman : The Golden Circle. I can sing it myself. Does everyone in the world know this song?
The John Denver song Country Roads also appears prominently in Studio Ghibli’s 1995 Whisper of the Heart. The movie actually opens with the song, which caused my wife and I to look at each other in astonishment when we first watched it. “An old John Denver song… in an anime?!?” Later, the main characters perform most of the song for a small group of people. The song pops up here and there throughout the movie. It’s a coming of age story about a boy who wants to build violins and a girl still trying to find her way. It’s a very good movie and after a few viewings Country Roads starts to make more sense with the story.
Yeah, pretty much.
I’ve heard it in Germany, Bermuda, India, and probably a few other places.
It’s basically in the pantheon with Sweet Caroline, some Michael Jackson, and Beatles stuff a songs folks will probably sing along with just about anywhere.
Don’t know what part if Asia your guys are from, but it is/was well known in Japan. The period piece Studio Ghibli movie Whisper of the Heart features as a plot point a rewriting of the song for a Japanese life, for example.
There is also a Japanese rap remake
And a shockingly terrible Machine Gun Kelly/Jelly Roll knockoff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6-JNeXxN3s
Do not click that link. It’s awful.
I have played that song in Germany, Australia, the UK, Iraq, Thailand, points in between, etc.
On the downside, I was born and raised in WV, so I have played that damn song more times than I wish.
Yes, everyone knows it.
It is a plot point in the Studio Ghibli’s “Whisper of the Hearth” (1995) (There was live version made in 2022!)
Has anyone mentioned Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart yet?
I remember reading (here?) that for a time, it was the most popular drinking song in Germany.
Joke (probably from @Prof.Pepperwinkle’s joke thread:
Q: At what time did John Denver compose Country Roads?
A: Almost seven.
Well, they probably had lots of time on their hands to learn.
After all, its not like everybody was kung-fu fighting, or anything like that.
I have close family in Virginia and West Virginia and visit often. One of my favorite memories is a 1970s era gathering in Charleston, West Virginia where we had some older relatives gathered around an organ singing this song together after dinner.
I just returned from a visit to the Virginias last week. I feel so stupid that I never knew West Virginia is called the Mountain State. I clearly have no situational awareness at times.
I visit Germany frequently and I have heard it sung at some gatherings during my travels.
Yes…more text
I’d be willing to bet the song is a karaoke favorite so lots of people around the world get exposed to it.
Just a guess on my part though.
It’s sung at Saskatchewan Rider football games. Country themes are big here. (And everyone seems to be able to sing along, at least to the chorus.)
Oh. Great!
I’ll never get rid of this earworm…aaaccckkk!
Country and folk never have been very popular genres in Germany, but rather niche, but “Country Roads” by far is the most popular country folk song here. You hear it everywhere, on the radio, at parties and public events. But I bet always no one could name a second John Denver song. I personally like “Leaving On A Jet Plane” much better, though that might be due to overexposure to CR for decades.
I learned the song in Moscow.
Specifically, aged 10, in music class at the Anglo-American (embassy) school of Moscow, in 1977.
Apart from learning that song, some US grad students in our hotel (where we lived for nearly a year) made my mother tapes of all their John Denver, and she played them a lot, which was my introduction to John Denver, so not only can I sing “Country Roads” completely from memory, I can sing other John Denver songs as well.
To this day, any time I hear John Denver, I think of Moscow.
Probably not in Afghanistan
Sunshine on my shoulders.