{{Short description|1976 song by Warren Zevon}} {{Infobox song | name = Poor Poor Pitiful Me | cover = | alt = | type = | artist = Warren Zevon | album = Warren Zevon | released = 1976 | recorded = | studio = | venue = | genre = Country rock | length = 3:04 | label = Asylum | writer = Warren Zevon | producer = Jackson Browne | misc = {{External music video|type=song|header=Audio|{{YouTube|ehYvseT27c4|"Poor Poor Pitiful Me" by Warren Zevon}}}} }}
"'''Poor Poor Pitiful Me'''" is a rock song written and first recorded by American musician Warren Zevon in 1976.
With change in the lyrics from male to female perspective, it was made a hit twice after Zevon’s recording: first as a top-40 hit for Linda Ronstadt in 1976, then two decades later by Terri Clark, whose version topped the Canadian country charts and reached the country top five in the U.S.
==Warren Zevon version==
===Background=== In keeping with Warren Zevon's sardonic lyrical style, the song's verses deal with a suicide attempt, domestic abuse, and a brush with sadomasochism.
The song "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" was produced by Jackson Browne and was featured on Zevon's eponymous 1976 album ''Warren Zevon'' with backing vocals by Lindsey Buckingham. The track was later included on his greatest hits compilations ''A Quiet Normal Life'' (1986), ''I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead'' (1996), and ''Genius: The Best of Warren Zevon'' (2002). Live versions appeared on 1980s ''Stand in the Fire'' and 1993's ''Learning to Flinch''. Alternate studio versions were included in the 2008 reissue of ''Warren Zevon'', as well as the posthumous 2007 compilation ''Preludes: Rare and Unreleased Recordings''.
==Linda Ronstadt version== {{Infobox song | name = Poor Poor Pitiful Me | image = Poor poor pitiful me by linda ronstadt US single side-A.png | alt = side-A label | caption = One of side-A labels of the US single | type = single | artist = Linda Ronstadt | album = Simple Dreams | B-side = "Simple Man Simple Dream" (or "Blue Bayou") | released = January 10, 1978 | recorded = | studio = | venue = | genre = Country rock | length = 3:42 | label = Asylum 45462 | writer = Warren Zevon | producer = Peter Asher | prev_title = It's So Easy | prev_year = 1977 | next_title = Tumbling Dice | next_year = 1978 | misc = {{External music video|header=Audio|{{YouTube|9No14pP_IKY|"Poor Poor Pitiful Me" by Linda Ronstadt}}}} }}
===Background=== Linda Ronstadt recorded a gender-altered version of the song in 1977. Ronstadt would recall Jackson Browne had pitched "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" to her, teaching it to her in the living room of her Malibu home.<ref>{{cite book | first=Linda | last=Ronstadt | year=2013 | title=Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir | edition=1st hardcover | publisher=Simon & Schuster | location= New York | pages=63 | isbn=978-1-4516-6872-8}}</ref> "The verse in “Poor Pitiful Me” was “I met a girl on the Sunset Strip,” I think, “She asked me if I’d beat her / She took me up to her hotel room / And wrecked my mojo heater.” It was really funny, and I'm saying to Jackson, “I can’t sing those words, man! That’s not who I am. . . . I have to leave that part out.”<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/10/linda-ronstadt-parkinsons-listening-singing|title=Linda Ronstadt: I Know When Parkinson's Hit from Listening to My Own Singing|last=Maiscott|first=Mary Lyn|date=October 28, 2013|magazine=Vanity Fair|language=en|access-date=March 26, 2018}}</ref>
With Zevon's blessing, Ronstadt replaced the verse with “Well I met a boy in the Vieux Carré / Down in Yokohama / He picked me up and he threw me down / Saying 'Please don't hurt me Mama!'.” This verse was also used in Clark's version of the song. Earlier demo tapes later released on ''Preludes: Rare and Unreleased Recordings'' show at one point Zevon had intended to use the Vieux Carré verse as the song's opening verse, before scrapping it, then later blessing its use as the song's final verse on Ronstadt's arrangement (an arrangement Zevon would often imitate in live shows such as the version recorded on ''Stand in the Fire'').
Ronstadt's interpretation was produced by Peter Asher for her multi-platinum album ''Simple Dreams.'' Ronstadt's live version appeared on the soundtrack album to the 1978 movie ''FM'', while the studio version was included on her platinum-plus album ''Greatest Hits, Volume 2''.
===Reception=== Released as a single on the Asylum label at the beginning of 1978, Ronstadt's version was the week's highest debut on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart the week of January 28, 1978. It reached number 26 on the ''Cash Box'' Top 100<ref name="cashboxmagazine.com">{{cite web|url=http://cashboxmagazine.com/archives/70s_files/19780318.html |title=Top 100 1978-03-18 |work=Cashbox Magazine |access-date=2015-05-25 }}</ref> and number 31 in ''Billboard''.
===Chart performance=== {|class="wikitable sortable" !align="left"|Chart (1978) !align="center"|Peak<br />position |- |align="left"|Canadian ''RPM'' Adult Contemporary Tracks |align="center"|9 |- |align="left"|Canadian ''RPM'' Country Tracks |align="center"|36 |- |align="left"|Canadian ''RPM'' Top Singles |align="center"|31 |- {{singlechart|Billboardcountrysongs|46|artist=Linda Ronstadt}} |- |align="left"|U.S. ''Billboard'' Easy Listening <ref name="AC">{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/linda-ronstadt/chart-history/asi/ |title=Adult Contemporary: Linda Ronstadt |date=2019 |magazine=Billboard |access-date=9 May 2019}}</ref> |align="center"|27 |- {{singlechart|Billboardhot100|31|artist=Linda Ronstadt}} |- |align="left"|U.S. ''Cash Box'' Top 100<ref name="cashboxmagazine.com"/> |align="center"|26 |}
==Terri Clark version== {{Infobox song | name = Poor Poor Pitiful Me | cover = PPPM_Terri_Clark.jpg | alt = | type = single | artist = Terri Clark | album = Just the Same | B-side = "Something You Should've Said"<ref name="whitburn">{{cite book|last=Whitburn|first=Joel|title=Hot Country Songs 1944 to 2008|publisher=Record Research, Inc|year=2008|pages=95–96|isbn=978-0-89820-177-2}}</ref> | released = September 23, 1996 | recorded = | studio = | venue = | genre = Country | length = 3:10 | label = Mercury | writer = Warren Zevon | producer = {{hlist|Keith Stegall|Chris Waters|Terri Clark}} | prev_title = Suddenly Single | prev_year = 1996 | next_title = Emotional Girl | next_year = 1997 | misc = {{External music video|{{YouTube|T3064dD-qGQ|"Poor Poor Pitiful Me"}}}} }}
===Background=== Another hit cover version of the song was recorded by Canadian country singer Terri Clark. It was released in September 1996 as the lead single from her second album, 1996's ''Just the Same''. Clark told ''Billboard'' magazine that she heard Linda Ronstadt's version of the song in a local gymnasium while she was exercising. She said "and I thought, what a cool song. What a great country record that could make. I started doing it live, and it worked."<ref>''Billboard'', October 5, 1996</ref>
===Reception=== "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" debuted at number 47 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of October 12, 1996. Clark's version was a number one hit on the Canadian ''RPM'' country charts, and a number five hit on the country charts in the U.S.
Zevon would express approval of Clark's cover, including in what became his last public performance at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival in 2002 where he ended his performance of "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" by exclaiming "Thank you Terri Clark!"<ref>{{cite AV media notes |last1=Zevon |first1=Warren |date=November 28, 2025 |title=Epilogue: Live At the Edmonton Folk Festival |url=https://www.warrenzevon.com/Epilogue/}}</ref>
===Music video=== The music video was directed by Deaton Flanigen and premiered in late 1996. It comprises black-and-white tour footage interspersed with Clark being approached by a series of men while her car is being fixed at a full service gas station. Eventually, she realizes the man fixing her car is the one for her. She starts to drive off, before calling him over to get in. The two drive off together, leaving the other two co-workers at the shop surprised.
===Chart performance=== {|class="wikitable sortable" !align="left"|Chart (1996) !align="center"|Peak<br />position |- {{singlechart|Canadacountry|1|chartid=9900|publishdate=December 9, 1996|access-date=July 20, 2013}} |- {{singlechart|Billboardbubbling100|109|artist=Terri Clark}} |- {{singlechart|Billboardcountrysongs|5|artist=Terri Clark}} |}
===Year-end charts=== {| class="wikitable" |- !scope="col"|Chart (1996) !scope="col"|Position |- | Canada Country Tracks (''RPM'')<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?brws_s=1&file_num=nlc008388.9734&type=1&interval=24|title=RPM Top 100 Country Tracks of 1996|work=RPM|date=December 16, 1996|access-date=July 20, 2013}}</ref> | align="center" | 43 |}
==Other versions== *In 1986, SNFU did a hardcore punk cover of the song on the compilation ''It Came from the Pit''. Lead singer Mr. Chi Pig sang the Linda Ronstadt lyrics with a few changes, but kept it as being about men he had encountered. *Vitamin String Quartet recorded an instrumental version of the song on ''Dad Get Me Out of This: The String Quartet Tribute to Warren Zevon'' in 2003. *In 2004 Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt covered it on ''Enjoy Every Sandwich: The Songs of Warren Zevon''.
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Warren Zevon}} {{Linda Ronstadt}} {{Terri Clark}} {{Authority control}}
Category:1976 songs Category:1978 singles Category:1996 singles Category:Songs about suicide Category:Warren Zevon songs Category:Linda Ronstadt songs Category:Terri Clark songs Category:Jackson Browne songs Category:Bonnie Raitt songs Category:Songs written by Warren Zevon Category:Song recordings produced by Keith Stegall Category:Asylum Records singles Category:Mercury Records singles Category:Music videos directed by Deaton-Flanigen Productions Category:Songs about trains Category:Songs about BDSM Category:Songs about domestic violence Category:Song recordings produced by Jackson Browne