A dialogue came about some time ago between a few friends and I regarding Joni Mitchell and some of her contempories of the late ‘60s. Here are a few of the fruits of that debate...

The fact that she learned exclusively using alternate tunings and didn't even know standard tuning until at least much later in her career (if ever?...) is about as cool as it gets. Then add to that her great poetic, emotional songwriting and her eventual venturings into the jazz realm... Oh, and her beautiful, mesmerizing voice.

Yeah, a true folk pioneer... Puts Joan Baez and Judy Collins to shame, as far as I'm concerned. Compared to Joni, they were virtually a dime-a-dozen...

My 2 cents.

In all fairness, comparing these singers is like comparing apples to oranges. Yet from a strictly personal, subjective, opinion-based standpoint I don't consider them in the same league and probably not even in the same genre - except perhaps in the beginning. For whatever it's worth, a crazy parallel is as follows: Judy/Joan are like Eric Clapton, while Joni is like Jimi Hendrix. The traditionalist vs. the pioneer. Anyhow...

Here’s a somewhat comprehensive run-down of well known artists who have likewise been inspired and influenced by Joni:

Mitchell's work has had an influence on artists as disparate as Tori Amos, Alanis Morissette, Björk, Jeff Buckley, Clannad, Elvis Costello, Dan Fogelberg, Janet Jackson, Maynard James Keenan (Tool), Annie Lennox, Madonna, Chan Marshall (Cat Power), George Michael, Morrissey, Juice Newton, Conor Oberst, Prince, The Roots, Roxette, Shakira, The Sundays, Fiona Apple, and KT Tunstall.

For instance, Prince's song "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" off the album Sign 'O' the Times, pays tribute to Mitchell, both through his evocative Mitchell-like harmonies and through the use of one of Mitchell's own techniques: as in Mitchell's song "This Flight Tonight", Prince references a song in his lyrics (Joni's own "Help Me") as the music begins to emulate the chords and melody of that song. Another Mitchell reference left by Prince can also be seen on the back cover of his 1981 Controversy record, where one of the headlines reads "*JONI*".

Madonna has also cited Mitchell as the first female artist that really spoke to her as a teenager; "I was really, really into Joni Mitchell. I knew every word to Court and Spark; I worshiped her when I was in high school. Blue is amazing. I would have to say of all the women I've heard, she had the most profound effect on me from a lyrical point of view."

A number of artists have enjoyed success covering Mitchell's songs. Judy Collins's 1967 recording of "Both Sides Now" reached #8 on Billboard charts and was a breakthrough in the career of both artists (Mitchell's own recording did not see release until two years later, on her second album Clouds). This is Mitchell's most-covered song by far, with 587 versions recorded at latest count. Hole also covered "Both Sides Now" in 1990, renaming it "Clouds" and changing the lyrics. Pop group Neighborhood in 1970 and Amy Grant in 1995 scored hits with covers of "Big Yellow Taxi", the second most covered song in Mitchell's repertoire (with 223 covers). Recent releases of this song have been by Counting Crows in 2002 and Nena in 2007. Janet Jackson used a sample of the chorus of "Big Yellow Taxi" as the centerpiece of her 1997 hit single "Got 'Til It's Gone", which also features rapper Q-Tip saying "Joni Mitchell never lie". Rap artists Kanye West and Mac Dre have also sampled Mitchell's vocals in their music. In addition, Annie Lennox has covered "Ladies Of The Canyon" for the B-side of her 1995 hit "No More I Love You's". Mandy Moore covered "Help Me" in 2003. In 2004 singer George Michael covered her song "Edith And The Kingpin" for a radio show. "River" has been of the most popular songs covered in recent years, with versions by James Taylor (recorded for television in 2000, and for CD release in 2004), Allison Crowe (2004), Rachael Yamagata (2004), Aimee Mann (2005), and Sarah McLachlan (2006). McLachlan also did a version of "Blue" in 1996, and Cat Power recorded a cover of "Blue" in 2008. Other Mitchell covers include the famous "Woodstock" by both Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and Matthews Southern Comfort, "This Flight Tonight" by Nazareth, and well-known versions of "Woodstock" by Eva Cassidy and "A Case Of You" by Tori Amos, Jane Monheit, Prince, and Diana Krall.

Prince's version, "A Case of U", appeared on A Tribute to Joni Mitchell, a 2007 compilation released by Nonesuch Records, which also featured Bjork ("The Boho Dance"), Caetano Veloso ("Dreamland"), Emmylou Harris ("The Magdalene Laundries"), Sufjan Stevens ("Free Man in Paris") and Cassandra Wilson ("For the Roses"), among others. Some of the recordings were made in the late 1990s when a project entitled A Case Of Joni was developed but left incomplete. Among those who recorded tracks for the first tribute album, which remain unreleased, were Janet Jackson and Sheryl Crow.

Several other songs reference Joni Mitchell. Led Zeppelin's "Going to California" was said to be written about Robert Plant and Jimmy Page's infatuation with Mitchell, a claim that seems to be borne out by the fact that, in live performances, Plant often says "Joni" after the line "To find a queen without a king, they say she plays guitar and cries and sings". Jimmy Page uses a double dropped D guitar tuning similar to the alternative tunings Mitchell uses. The Sonic Youth song Hey Joni from their acclaimed Daydream Nation album is named for Mitchell. Sonic Youth (Kim Gordon) also uses a wide variety of alternate guitar tunings.

- Wikipedia (boldness added)