"Those Were the Days" is a popular song, with lyrics by Gene Raskin set to the Russian romance song "Dorogoi Dlinnoyu", by Boris Fomin. It is a reminiscence of youth and romantic idealism, recalling drinking, singing, and dancing in a tavern with a friend, imagining a rosy future that has not been fulfilled.
The first recording of Those Were the Days was released in 1962 by the American folk trio The Limeliters. The Welsh singer Mary Hopkin recorded "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 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. The song was included on Hopkin's 1969 debut album, Post Card.
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History
Dorogoi Dlinnoyu
Dorogoi Dlinnoyu ("By the Long Road") was composed in 1924 with music by Boris Fomin and lyrics by the poet Konstantin Podrevsky.
Georgian singer Tamara Tsereteli (1900–1968) and Russian singer Alexander Vertinsky made what were probably the earliest recordings of the song, in 1925 and 1926 respectively. The song appears in the 1953 British/French movie Innocents in Paris, sung by the Russian Roma chanteuse Ludmila Lopato.
Those Were the Days
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 Dorogoi Dlinnoyu, wrote English-language lyrics to it. Raskin copyrighted both the music and lyrics in his own name, though he had created only the lyrics.
The Limeliters released a recording of the song on their 1962 LP Folk Matinee.
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. After the formation of the Beatles' own Apple Records label, McCartney recorded Mary Hopkin performing the song at Abbey Road Studios in London. 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." McCartney had the idea to use a cymbalom as one of the main instruments backing the recording. The song was eventually recorded in over twenty languages and by many different artists.
Mary Hopkin's 1968 recording, with Gene Raskin's lyric, was a chart-topping hit worldwide. On most recordings of the song, Raskin is credited as the sole writer, even though he wrote only the English-language lyrics, which are not a translation of the Russian lyrics, and not the music.
Hopkin's recording was produced by McCartney with an arrangement by Richard Hewson, in his first arrangement of a pop song. It 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. In the Netherlands, it topped the charts for two consecutive weeks. 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. Hopkin said in 2015, "I did not play guitar on 'Those Were the Days.' Paul played acoustic guitar."
Notable recordings
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.
2005: Dolly Parton released a version of the song on her album by the same name, “Those Were the Days (Dolly Parton album)”
2024: Australian singer Jude York released a re-written and rearranged version of the song.