A Heartfelt Happy Birthday To Joni Mitchell

Glorious songstress legend and woman with a smile filled with sunshine (see above) Joni Mitchell just turned 70 today. She's lived an exceptionally full, creative life as the queen of singer-songwriter folky ladies since her break-out in the late 1960s, but what has she done since then? Oh, just released 19 albums — Blue is still a seminal classic and can still make the masses sob 42 years after its release — and influenced countless female (and male) singers and creative people in general. As AllMusic once wrote, "when the dust settles, Joni Mitchell may stand as the most important and influential female recording artist of the late 20th century."

That influence can most definitely still be seen today, from the music industry at large — any acoustic act with a guitar calls back in some way to Mitchell and to Bob Dylan, and if that's not an icon, I don't know what is — to her onscreen mentions. Whether it's Nashville's Scarlett O'Connor and her down to Earth love songs (there's some Dolly in there, too) or in 30 Rock's direct referencing of her music, she's embedded in American culture.

In celebration of Mitchell, here are some tribute videos to her, starting with the aforementioned 30 Rock clip, moving to Tavi Gevinson's lovely cover of "A Case Of You" (which happens to have been dedicated to Mindy Kaling, who is a huge fan), and moving then to some of Joni herself.