Kris Kristofferson - For The Good Times video free download

San Sebastian (25 July 2010)

Kristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson (born June 22, 1936) is an American country music singer, songwriter, musician, and film actor. Born in Brownsville, Texas, he attended Pomona College, where he achieved a degree in literature and specialised in the poetry of Blake. Whilst at college, he published a series of short stories in Atlantic Monthly, and went on to win a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford.

It was in 1958, during his stay in England, that Kristofferson first performed his own music, under the pseudonym 'Kris Carson'. After graduating from Oxford, Kristofferson served in the US army for five years and, upon being discharged, turned down a teaching post in order to pursue his music career in Nashville.

Kristofferson soon scored musical successes, having his songs covered by the likes of Roger Miller and Jerry Lee Lewis, but it was not until Johnny Cash gained a number one hit with Kristofferson's "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" that he achieved fame as a songwriter. Both Sammi Smith and Janis Joplin went on to top the charts with Kristofferson-penned numbers and, in 1970, he unveiled his first, eponymous, studio release.

Kristofferson both wrote the soundtrack for, and appeared, in "The Last Movie" (1971), as well as starring opposite Gene Hackman in "Cisco Pike" (1972). In the same year, he scored his first musical hit with "Why Me?", and went on to star in Sam Peckinpah's seminal "Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid" (1973). A further collaboration with Peckinpah, "Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia" (1974), as well as a turn opposite the Oscar-winning Ellen Burstyn, in Martin Scorcese's "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" (1974) cemented his position as a reliable screen presence.

Kristofferson secured a breakthrough hit opposite Barbara Streisland, in 1976's "A Star Is Born" and, although he appeared in a number of films in the next five years, a string of commercial flops such as Michael Cimino's disastrous "Heaven's Gate" (1981) left his movie career reeling.

He spent much of the next decade in a number of television roles, but concentrated on pursuing his music career with country super-group The Highwaymen, whose eponymous debut went to No.1 in 1985.

After a decade in the wilderness of television mini-series and straight-to-video fare, Kristofferson's career underwent a major renaissance with the release of a Don Was-produced solo album, "A Moment Of Forever", and a starring role in John Sayles' 1995 masterpiece, "Lone Star". He has since revived his Hollywood career with parts in "Payback" (1998), the "Blade" films (1998, 2001, 2004) and "Limbo". His latest roles include parts in "The Motel Life" (2012) and "Dolphin Tale 2" (2014).

Overall, Kristofferson has appeared in some 45 films, and recorded over 25 albums, and he remains one of the most successful country and western songwriters of his generation.

"For The Good Times" is a 1970 song penned by Kris Kristofferson that appeared on his debut album "Kristofferson". He wrote the first verse and chorus in 1968 while driving from Nashville to the Gulf of Mexico, but he did not complete the tune and release it until 1970.

Later that year, Ray Price recorded a version of the song which topped the U.S. country music charts and was awarded "Song Of The Year" by the Academy of Country Music. "For The Good Times" was Price's fifth #1 single and spent a total of nineteen weeks on the country chart. "For The Good Times" crossed over onto the pop chart peaking at number eleven, becoming Ray Price's only release to hit the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. Originally Price's label, Columbia Records, released the song as the "B" side of the single, but switched to promoting "For The Good Times" after Wayne Newton recorded his own version of the tune. The flip side, "Grazin' in Greener Pastures," did receive credit on the country music chart.

¨Originally recorded by Bill Nash, "For the Good Times" was eventually cut by Ray Price, whose version became a huge Top Ten hit and is a timeless standard from the early '70s. Musically, the song is somewhat similar to "Help Me Make It Through the Night" -- another song on Kris Kristofferson -- with its sweet and laid-back melody and feel. Looking back on a beautiful relationship, there is a certain rustic feel to the entire song, and this is where the appeal lies. A gorgeous string arrangement is both subtle and dramatic, and it is one of the recording's key ingredients.¨

(Song Review by Matthew Greenwald, www.allmusic.com)