These singer-songwriter songs from 1971 inspired millions, and many singer-songwriters today remain influenced by these tracks.

“He’s a walking contradiction, / partly truth, and partly fiction,” sang Kris Kristofferson in “The Pilgrim, Chapter 33,” one of the enduring songs he composed during his creative prime in the early ...

Kristofferson, who died Sept. 28, was a Rhodes Scholar and an Army Ranger before taking a chance at songwriting. "Me and Bobby McGee" is perhaps his most famous song. Originally broadcast in 1999.