| "Those Were the Days" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
&sq=Envato&lang=en&file=File:Mary-hopkins-those-were-the-days-1968.png) A-side label of UK single | ||||
| Single by Mary Hopkin | ||||
| from the album Post Card | ||||
| B-side | "Turn! Turn! Turn!" | |||
| Released | 30 August 1968[1] | |||
| Studio | EMI, London | |||
| Genre | Folk,[2][3] baroque pop | |||
| Length | 5:05 | |||
| Label | Apple | |||
| Songwriter(s) | ||||
| Producer(s) | Paul McCartney | |||
| Mary Hopkin singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| "Those Were The Days" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Sandie Shaw | ||||
| B-side | "Make It Go" | |||
| Released | 1968 | |||
| Genre | Easy listening | |||
| Length | 3:50 | |||
| Label | Pye | |||
| Songwriter(s) | ||||
| Sandie Shaw singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"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.
- ^ Miles, Barry (2001). The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years. London: Omnibus Press. p. 308. ISBN 978-0-7119-8308-3.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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
- ^ "An Industry Report on France". Billboard. 14 July 1973. p. 42. ISSN 0006-2510.
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