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Those Were the Days (song)

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For other songs, see Those Were the Days (disambiguation).

"Those Were the Days"
A-side label of UK single
Single by Mary Hopkin
from the album Post Card
B-side"Turn! Turn! Turn!"
Released30 August 1968[1]
StudioEMI, London
GenreFolk,[2][3] baroque pop
Length5:05
LabelApple
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Paul McCartney
Mary Hopkin singles chronology
"Those Were the Days"
(1968) 		"Goodbye"
(1969)
"Those Were The Days"
Single by Sandie Shaw
B-side"Make It Go"
Released1968
GenreEasy listening
Length3:50
LabelPye
Songwriter(s)
Sandie Shaw singles chronology
"Together"
(1968) 		"Those Were The Days"
(1968) 		"Monsieur Dupont"
(1969)

"Those Were the Days" is a song composed by Boris Fomin (1900–1948) but credited to Gene Raskin, who put a new English lyric to Fomin's Russian romance song "Dorogoi dlinnoyu",[a] with words by the poet Konstantin Podrevsky. The song is a reminiscence of youth and romantic idealism. It also deals with tavern activities, which include drinking, singing and dancing.

The Welsh singer Mary Hopkin covered "Those Were the Days" as her debut single in 1968. Produced by Paul McCartney of the Beatles and arranged by Richard Hewson, the song became a number one hit in the UK and Canada, and also reached number two in the US on the Billboard Hot 100 behind the Beatles' "Hey Jude". It was number one in the first edition of the French National Hit Parade launched by the Centre d'Information et de Documentation du Disque.[4] The song was included on Hopkin's 1969 debut album, Post Card.

Early history

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Georgian singer Tamara Tsereteli (1900–1968) and Russian singer Alexander Vertinsky made what were probably the earliest recordings of the song, in 1925[5] and 1926[6] respectively. The song appears in the 1953 British/French movie Innocents in Paris, in which it was sung with its original Russian lyrics by the Russian Tzigane chanteuse Ludmila Lopato. Mary Hopkin's 1968 recording, with Gene Raskin's lyric, was a chart-topping hit in much of the Northern Hemisphere. On most recordings of the song Raskin is credited as the sole writer, even though he wrote only the later English lyrics, which are not an English translation of the Russian lyrics, and not the music.

Later history

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In the early 1960s, Raskin and his wife Francesca played folk music in venues around Greenwich Village in New York, including the White Horse Tavern. Raskin, who had grown up hearing the song, wrote[7] new English lyrics to the old Russian music, and copyrighted both the music and lyrics in his own name.[8] The Limeliters subsequently released a recording of the song on their 1962 LP Folk Matinee.[9]

The Raskins were international performers and had played at London's "Blue Angel" club every year, always closing their show with the song. Paul McCartney frequented the club and, being quite taken with the song, attempted unsuccessfully to get several singers and groups, including the early Moody Blues, to record it.[10] After the formation of the Beatles' own Apple Records label, McCartney recorded Mary Hopkin performing the song at Abbey Road Studios in London.[11] He said later, "I thought it was very catchy, it had something, it was a good treatment of nostalgia... (Hopkin) picked it up very easily, as if she'd known it for years."[12] The song was eventually recorded in over twenty languages and by many different artists.

Hopkin's recording was produced by McCartney with an arrangement by Richard Hewson, and became a number-one hit on the UK Singles Chart. In the United States it reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 (held out of the top spot for three weeks by The Beatles' "Hey Jude") and topped the Billboard Easy Listening charts for six weeks.[13] In the Netherlands it topped the charts for two consecutive weeks.[14] The B-side of the record in the UK and the United States was a cover of Pete Seeger's "Turn! Turn! Turn!", which had been a US number-one hit for The Byrds in 1965.

The Russian origin of the melody was accentuated by instrumentation that was unusual for a top-ten pop record, including balalaika, clarinet, hammered dulcimer or cimbalom, tenor banjo and a children's choir, giving a klezmer feel to the song. The cimbalom was played by Gilbert Webster.[15] Hopkin said in 2015, " I did not play guitar on 'Those Were the Days.' Paul played acoustic guitar."[16]

McCartney also recorded Hopkin singing "Those Were the Days" in other languages for release in Spain (Qué tiempo tan feliz); in West Germany (An jenem Tag); in Italy (Quelli erano giorni); and in France (Le temps des fleurs). The non-English lyrics were also recorded by Dalida and Sandie Shaw.

"Those Were the Days" was given catalogue number APPLE 2. The APPLE 1 number had been taken by an unreleased version of Frank Sinatra's "The Lady Is a Tramp", which was recorded in 1968 for Maureen Starkey's 22nd birthday as a gift from Ringo Starr, under the name "The Lady is a Champ". It was the second single to be released on the Apple label; the first, "Hey Jude" by the Beatles, had retained the catalogue numbers used by Parlophone in the UK and Capitol in the US.

Hopkin's version was released following her success on the UK television talent show Opportunity Knocks. Around the time of its release, popular singer Sandie Shaw was also asked to record the song by her management, who felt that it should be done by a "real" singer. Shaw's version was released as a single, but did not match the success of Hopkin's version.

At the peak of the song's success, a New York company used the melody in a commercial for Rokeach gefilte fish, arguing that the tune was an old Russian folk-tune and therefore in the public domain. The commercial included the line "The perfect dish, Rokeach Gefilte Fish", where the English-language song went "Those were the days, oh yes, those were the days." Raskin successfully sued and won a settlement, since he had slightly altered the tune to fit his lyrics and had taken out a valid new copyright.[citation needed]

In the mid-1970s, after Hopkin's contract with Apple had ended, "Those Were the Days" and "Goodbye" were re-recorded with producer Tony Visconti, whom Hopkin had married in 1971. The re-recorded versions can be found on music compilations.

On 25 October 2010, Apple Records released Come and Get It: The Best of Apple Records, which included the original recordings of "Those Were the Days" and "Goodbye". The 'greatest hits' compilation album contained songs by artists who were signed to the Beatles' Apple record label between 1968 and 1973, and was the first multi-artist Apple compilation.

On Christmas 1969, the President of Equatorial Guinea, Francisco Macías Nguema, had 150 alleged coup plotters executed in the national stadium while the amplifier system played the Mary Hopkin recording of "Those Were the Days".[17]

The tune of "Those Were the Days" was used for the Republic of Ireland football chant "Come On You Boys in Green".[18]

In 2011, Hopkin's version of the song was used by Nando's South Africa in a satirical advertisement featuring Robert Mugabe as the "Last Dictator Standing". The commercial was axed quickly, due to the controversy it created and condemnation from pro-Mugabe loyalists.[19]

Charts (Mary Hopkin version)

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Certifications

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Region Certification Certified units/sales
United States (RIAA)[50] Gold 1,000,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Notable recordings

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  • 1968: The French version of the song, "Le temps des fleurs", was popularized by the international recording star Dalida following Hopkin's success. Dalida's single debuted at number 1 on the French charts. She released an Italian version in November 1968.[51]
  • In the 1970's, Bengali-Pakistani pop singer Alamgir sang the Urdu version of this song, mashed up to the tune of Nancy Sinatra's Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down). The first section of the song is to the tune of Bang Bang titled "Mere Lafzo Ki Mehkar Tu" (you are the fragrance of my words). The second section of the song is sung to the tune of "Those Were the Days" titled "Aao Na Pyar Kare" (come let's love). The tunes of both songs were mashed together in the Urdu version.[citation needed]
  • A Brazilian Portuguese version arranged by Maestro Zezinho was used as the opening song of SBT's Show de Calouros (1977–96), one of the first talent shows in Brazilian television. It became one of the tunes more closely associated with SBT and Silvio Santos, SBT's founder and Show de Calouros' host.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Russian: Дорогой длинною, IPA: [dɐˈroɡəj ˈdlʲinːəjʊ], lit. 'By the long road'.

References

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  1. ^ Miles, Barry (2001). The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years. London: Omnibus Press. p. 308. ISBN 978-0-7119-8308-3.
  2. ^ Kay, Hilary (1992). Rock & Roll Memorabilia: A History of Rock Mementos With over 600 Illustrations. Prentice Hall. p. 174. ISBN 978-0671-77931-3. The Hopkin single, a McCartney-produced traditional Russian folk song, knocked Apple 1 ("Hey Jude") off the U.K. top slot.
  3. ^ Spizer, Bruce. "An Apple a Day: Mary Hopkin – Post Card". Beatlesnews.com. Retrieved 1 June 2013. Mary Hopkin's debut single paired "Those Were The Days," a Lithuanian folk song adapted by American Gene Raskin
  4. ^ a b "An Industry Report on France". Billboard. 14 July 1973. p. 42. ISSN 0006-2510.
  5. ^ "Topic: Дорогой длинною" [Topic: By the long road]. SecondHandSongs. Retrieved 19 June 2010.
  6. ^ "Recording: Дорогой длинною - Alexander Vertinsky". SecondHandSongs. Retrieved 19 June 2010.
  7. ^ Miles, Barry (1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. Secker & Warburg. p. 455.
  8. ^ Perrone, Pierre (18 June 2004). "Gene Raskin – Singer, songwriter and architectural scholar". The Independent. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008.
  9. ^ "Those Were The Days (original) – The Limeliters 1962.wmv". YouTube. 23 April 2010. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
  10. ^ Engelhardt, Kristofer (2010). Beatles Deeper Undercover. Collector's Guide Publishing, Incorporated. p. 148. ISBN 978-1-926-59209-1.
  11. ^ Flans, Robyn (11 April 2015). "Classic Track: "Those Were the Days," Mary Hopkin". Mix. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  12. ^ Hill, Randall (26 November 2018). "'Those Were the Days' — Mary Hopkin, December 1968 - Senior Life - December 2018 - Florida". Viera Voice. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  13. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–2001. Record Research. p. 118.
  14. ^ a b "Mary Hopkin – Those Were The Days" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  15. ^ Engelhardt, Kristofer (2010). Beatles Deeper Undercover. Collector's Guide Publishing, Incorporated. p. 147. ISBN 978-1-926-59209-1.
  16. ^ Robyn Flans (4 November 2015). "Classic Tracks: Mary Hopkin's "Those Were the Days"". Mixonline. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  17. ^ Cronjé, Suzanne (1976). Equatorial Guinea, the forgotten dictatorship: forced labour and political murder in central Africa. Anti-Slavery Society. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-900918-05-6.
  18. ^ "Euro karaoke: how to sing along with the fans". UEFA. 20 June 2016. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  19. ^ "Nando's axes Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe 'dictator' advert". BBC News. 2 November 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  20. ^ "Cash Box - International Best Sellers" (PDF). Cashbox (magazine). 23 November 1968. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
  21. ^ "Forum – ARIA Charts: Special Occasion Charts – CHART POSITIONS Pre 1989 Part 4". Australian-charts.com. Hung Medien. Archived from the original on 26 August 2014. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  22. ^ "Mary Hopkin – Those Were The Days" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  23. ^ "Mary Hopkin – Those Were The Days" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  24. ^ "Top RPM Singles: Issue 5815." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  25. ^ "Hits of the World". Billboard. Vol. 80, no. 49. 7 December 1968. p. 68. ISSN 0006-2510.
  26. ^ a b "Hits of the World". Billboard. Vol. 80, no. 47. 23 November 1968. p. 78. ISSN 0006-2510.
  27. ^ Ehnert, Günter, ed. (1990). Hit Bilanz: Deutsche Chart Singles 1956–1980. Hamburg: Taurus Press. p. 101.
  28. ^ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Those Were the Days". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  29. ^ "Japan #1 DISKS by Oricon Hot Singles". 18.ocn.ne.jp (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 26 December 2008. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  30. ^ "Nederlandse Top 40 – week 39, 1968" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  31. ^ "Hits of the World". Billboard. 13 June 1970. p. 51.
  32. ^ "Mary Hopkin – Those Were The Days". VG-lista. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  33. ^ "Hits of the World". Billboard. Vol. 60, no. 48. 30 November 1968. p. 88. ISSN 0006-2510.
  34. ^ "Hits of the World". Billboard. 16 November 1968.
  35. ^ Salaverri, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (in Spanish) (1st ed.). Spain: Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
  36. ^ "Hits of the World". Billboard. Vol. 80, no. 46. 30 November 1968. p. 71. ISSN 0006-2510.
  37. ^ "Mary Hopkin – Those Were The Days". Swiss Singles Chart. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  38. ^ "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  39. ^ a b "Post Card – Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  40. ^ "CASH BOX Top 100 Singles – Week ending NOVEMBER 9, 1968". Cash Box. Archived from the original on 30 September 2012.
  41. ^ "100 Top Pops" (PDF). Record World. 2 November 1981. p. 25. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
  42. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Mary Hopkin – Those Were The Days" (in German). GfK Entertainment charts. Retrieved 18 March 2019. To see peak chart position, click "TITEL VON Mary Hopkin"
  43. ^ "50 Back Catalogue Singles – 21/11/2009". Ultratop. Hung Medien. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  44. ^ "Jaaroverzichten 1968" (in Dutch). Ultratop. Hung Medien. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  45. ^ "The RPM 100 Top Singles of 1968". RPM. Vol. 10, no. 19. Library and Archives Canada. 6 January 1969. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  46. ^ "Top 100-Jaaroverzicht van 1968" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  47. ^ "Schweizer Jahreshitparade 1968" (in German). Hitparade.ch. Hung Medien. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  48. ^ "Top 100 Hits for 1968". The Longbored Surfer. Archived from the original on 25 November 2010. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
  49. ^ "The CASH BOX Year-End Charts: 1968". Cash Box. Archived from the original on 14 August 2012.
  50. ^ "American single certifications – Mary Hopkin – Those Were the Days". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
  51. ^ "From the Music Capitals of the World". Billboard. Vol. 80, no. 47. 23 November 1968. p. 75. ISSN 0006-2510.
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