"Day Is Done" is a folk song written and performed by Nick Drake, who is credited as the sole composer and lyricist. It is the fifth track on his album Five Leaves Left, released by Island Records in July 1969, and runs 2 minutes 29 seconds. The album was recorded between May 1968 and April 1969 at Sound Techniques in London, produced by Joe Boyd and engineered by John Wood. Drake recorded live with no overdubbing, playing acoustic guitar on this track, while Robert Kirby arranged the strings.
The album received mixed reviews on release, but its reputation grew over the following decades. NME gave it 9 out of 10 in a 1989 retrospective, and Q, in a 1999 list, called it a folk pinnacle. Later versions include a 2001 cover by the Charlie Hunter Quartet with Norah Jones, and the song has been taken up by many jazz and folk performers.
