With a voice full of Colorado sunshine and tender, sparkling melodic tunes that melted the borders between folk, pop and country, John Denver defined the breezy, easy-rolling sound of American radio in the first half of the ‘70s. He could just as easily get down with a fiddle-fuelled back-porch stomper like “Thank God I'm a Country Boy” as he could croon his way through the soaring, summery transcendence of pop masterpiece “Sunshine On My Shoulders”—in both cases offering up a warm, welcoming vision of what ‘70s pop could encompass.