In 1953, Joni Mitchell heard the song that made her fall in love with music. Now, she calls it “the most beautiful melody ever”

Joni Mitchell has said that Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, especially its 18th variation, first made her fall in love with music. She credits the piece’s melody with inspiring her to create music, a formative influence that stayed with her as her interests later expanded to folk and rock and roll.

As a child, Mitchell would visit a record shop where customers could listen to 78 rpm records in a glass booth before buying them. She could not afford the record, but returned to hear the rhapsody; she later called it “the most beautiful melody I ever heard”. In the 1950s, rock and roll became another major influence, but the article says the classical piece remained important to her.