"A Case of You" is a song

Song

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

 by Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...

, from her 1971 album Blue

Blue (Joni Mitchell album)

Blue is the fourth album of Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. Exploring the various facets of relationships from infatuation on "A Case of You" to insecurity on "This Flight Tonight", the songs feature simple accompaniments on piano, guitar, and Appalachian dulcimer...

. It is one of her most well-known songs.

Writing and recording

Mitchell recorded A Case of You in 1971, during her early folk

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 period. The song was first released on the 1971 album Blue

Blue (Joni Mitchell album)

Blue is the fourth album of Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. Exploring the various facets of relationships from infatuation on "A Case of You" to insecurity on "This Flight Tonight", the songs feature simple accompaniments on piano, guitar, and Appalachian dulcimer...

with Mitchell playing Appalachian dulcimer, accompanied by James Taylor on acoustic guitar. The recent release of the live album Amchitka - the 1970 concert that launched Greenpeace shows that the song was written earlier than 1971 as Mitchell performs a live version of "A Case of You" at the concert.

Mitchell later re-recorded it on her live album Miles of Aisles

Miles of Aisles

Miles of Aisles is a 1974 double live album by Joni Mitchell backed by the L.A. Express, recorded on the Court and Spark tour. It reached #2 on the charts and became one of her biggest-selling records....

(1974). The song is found on Mitchell's Misses

Misses (album)

Misses is a 1996 compilation album by Joni Mitchell. The tracks were chosen by Mitchell herself, and her selections concentrate on her lesser known, more experimental work, including jazz influenced recordings from the late 1970s and electronic music from the 1980s. Mitchell also designed the album...

(1996), and Both Sides Now (2000) in an orchestral version featuring a new vocal by Mitchell.

Legacy

The song is found on many bootleg recordings from her 1983 tour. "A Case of You" has also been performed by artists as diverse as Sloan

Sloan (band)

Sloan is a Toronto-based alternative rock quartet from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Throughout their 20-year tenure Sloan has released 10 LPs , two EPs, a live album, a "best of" collection and no less than thirty singles...

, Tori Amos

Tori Amos

Tori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...

, Brian Kennedy

Brian Kennedy (singer)

Brian Edward Patrick Kennedy is an Irish singer-songwriter and author, known for his ballads, and has represented Ireland at Eurovision 2006. He is the younger brother of musician Bap Kennedy.-Personal life:...

, Michelle Branch

Michelle Branch

Michelle Jacquet DeSevren Branch is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and actress. During the early 2000s, she released two top-selling albums, The Spirit Room and Hotel Paper, and was subsequently nominated for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2003...

, Keller Williams

Keller Williams

Keller Williams is an American musician from Fredericksburg, Virginia, who began performing in the early 1990s. He is also known by the names K-Dub or just Keller, when performing. Williams' music combines elements of bluegrass, folk, alternative rock, reggae, electronica/dance, jazz, funk, and...

, k.d. lang

K.D. Lang

Kathryn Dawn Lang, OC , known by her stage name k.d. lang, is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress...

, Lyn Paul

Lyn Paul

Lyn Paul is an English pop singer and actress. She came to fame as a member of the international chart-topping pop group The New Seekers in the early 1970s...

, Caroline Lavelle

Caroline Lavelle

Caroline Lavelle is a British singer-songwriter and cellist who has created three solo albums and contributed vocals, music, and production help to many other artists and bands.-Career:Lavelle studied at the Royal College of Music in London...

, Kate Earl

Kate Earl

Kate Earl, born Kate Joy Smithson, is an American singer-songwriter.Earl was born to Charles and Pomposa Smithson in Anchorage, Alaska. She is of Filipino and Dutch/Welsh descent. She began playing piano at 4, sang in her church choir, and began playing the guitar when she was seventeen...

, Cristina Branco

Cristina Branco

Cristina Branco is a Portuguese musician.Branco was originally drawn to jazz and forms of Portuguese music before finally opting for fado after being introduced to the music of Amália Rodrigues by her grandfather. Branco studied the poems from which major fado lyrics are taken...

, Diana Krall

Diana Krall

Diana Jean Krall, OC, OBC is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer, known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 6 million albums in the US and over 15 million worldwide; altogether, she has sold more albums than any other female jazz artist during the 1990s and 2000s...

, Jane Monheit

Jane Monheit

Jane Monheit is a jazz and adult contemporary vocalist for Concord Records. She has collaborated with artists such as Michael Bublé, Ivan Lins, Terence Blanchard and Tom Harrell, and has received Grammy nominations for two of her recordings.-Early life:Jane Monheit was raised in Oakdale, New York...

, Julia Murney

Julia Murney

Julia Kathleen Murney is an American actress, singer and theatre performer, primarily featured in theatre and television commercial voice-overs. Until 2005, she was commonly known as the Broadway actress who had technically never appeared on Broadway...

, Javier

Javier (singer)

Javier Colon is an American singer and songwriter of Dominican and Puerto Rican origin, born in Stratford, Connecticut. He has referred to his style of music as being "acoustic soul." He was a member of EmcQ and The Derek Trucks Band, and worked with many musicians before going solo...

, Philip Morrow

Philip Morrow

Philip Morrow is a Northern Irish television producer. In 1999, he founded Wild Rover Productions, a television production company best known for producing the hidden-camera show Just for Laughs along with various entertainment, comedy, and pop-factual TV programmes...

 and Colin Meloy

Colin Meloy

Colin Patrick Henry Meloy is the lead singer and songwriter for the Portland, Oregon, folk-rock band The Decemberists. In addition to vocals, he performs with an acoustic guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bouzouki, harmonica, percussion and interpretive hand gestures.-Early life...

 of the Decemberists

The Decemberists

The Decemberists are an indie folk rock band from Portland, Oregon, United States, fronted by singer/songwriter Colin Meloy. The other members of the band are Chris Funk , Jenny Conlee , Nate Query , and John Moen .The band's...

, Dawn Langstroth

Dawn Langstroth

Dawn Langstroth is a Toronto-based singer/songwriter and painter. She has released two EPs, self-titled "Dawn Langstroth" and "No Mercy", and released her debut album "Highwire" in 2009...

 (Highwire, Linn Records

Linn Records

Linn Records is a Glasgow-based record label which specialises in classical, jazz and Scottish music. It is part of Linn Products.-History:While Linn engineers were testing their flagship product, the Sondek LP12 turntable, they became frustrated with some of the specialist test LPs they were using...

), and James Blake

James Blake (musician)

James Blake is a British electronic music producer and singer-songwriter from London, UK. On 6 January 2011, Blake was announced as runner-up in BBC's Sound of 2011 poll...

.

Prince

Prince (musician)

Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...

 recorded a version, retitled "A Case of U", on his 2002 album, One Nite Alone...

One Nite Alone...

One Nite Alone... is the twenty-fifth studio album by Prince. It features him on piano and vocals with a few embellishments here and there. It was released online in 2002 through the NPG Music Club and it was never even available in stores. Many fans have only heard the album through MP3...

. He also played the song in 1983 during the First Avenue performance where the album versions of "Purple Rain

Purple Rain (song)

"Purple Rain" is a power ballad by Prince and The Revolution. It is the title track from the 1984 album of the same name, which in turn is the soundtrack album for the 1984 film of the same name, and was released as the third single from that album. The song is a combination of rock, pop, gospel,...

" and several other tracks from the Purple Rain

Purple Rain (album)

Purple Rain is the sixth studio album by Prince, the first to officially be credited to Prince and The Revolution, and is the soundtrack album to the 1984 film Purple Rain.Purple Rain is regularly ranked among the best albums in pop music history...

album were recorded.

The song appears in the films Truly, Madly, Deeply

Truly, Madly, Deeply

Truly, Madly, Deeply is a 1990 film made for the BBC's Screen Two series.-Overview:The film was written and directed by Anthony Minghella and stars Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman. Minghella said he wrote the script specifically as “a vehicle for [Stevenson] to express all her talents...

, Practical Magic

Practical Magic

Practical Magic is a 1998 American fantasy film directed by Griffin Dunne and starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as witches who carry on a family legacy of witchcraft and tragedy. The film is based on a book of the same name by Alice Hoffman...

, and Waking the Dead

Waking the Dead (film)

Waking the Dead is a 2000 American drama film directed by Keith Gordon. The screenplay by Robert Dillon is based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Scott Spencer.-Plot:...

.

James Blake

James Blake (musician)

James Blake is a British electronic music producer and singer-songwriter from London, UK. On 6 January 2011, Blake was announced as runner-up in BBC's Sound of 2011 poll...

's version appeared on the NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 TV series Parenthood

Parenthood (2010 TV series)

Parenthood is an American comedy-drama television series developed by Jason Katims and produced by Imagine Television and Universal Media Studios. The first season premiered on March 2, 2010 on NBC...

.

In 2011, Joni Mitchell was voted the no. 1 female artist and A Case Of You the no. 1 female song by listeners of BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

's Desert Island Discs

Desert Island Discs

Desert Island Discs is a BBC Radio 4 programme first broadcast on 29 January 1942. It is the second longest-running radio programme , and is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio...

.