7. Up to the Mountain, Patty Griffin.
Folk singer Griffin took her inspiration from King’s 1968 “I Have Been to the Mountaintop,” which he delivered the day before he died. Griffin’s 2006 gospel-inspired tune has been covered by numerous artists, most notably American Idol’s Kelly Clarkson.
8. Abraham, Martin and John, Dion.
“He freed a lot of people. but it seems the good die young…” Dion’s mournful 1968 ballad remembers the lives and deaths of Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and MLK and at the very end, adds “Bobby”—Robert Kennedy—to the list of heroes who died too young.
