Tags
#1 single, 1970s, bell, Canadian, dying farewell, Jacques Brel, Le Maribond, Music, One Hit Wonder, Rod McKuen, Seasons in the Sun, worldwide
Seasons in the Sun (Bell, 1973)
Seasons in the Sun is an English-language adaptation of the 1961 song Le Moribond by Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel with lyrics rewritten in 1963 by American singer-poet Rod McKuen, portraying a dying man’s farewell to his loved ones. It became a worldwide hit in 1974 for Canadian singer Terry Jacks. In 1964, the Kingston Trio first recorded an English version of Seasons in the Sun, which was later heard by Terry Jacks and became the basis for his rendition. Jacks rewrote the lyrics, although he is uncredited for it. The inspiration for the rewritten lyrics was a friend of Jacks who was suffering from acute leukemia and died four months later. The Terry Jacks rendition was later dedicated to the friend. Unlike the Jacques Brel version, Jacks’ rendition instead tells of a dying man giving his last words to his loved ones. In the first verse the dying man gives his last words to his friend, whom he had known since childhood and reminisces the happy times they had such as playing together (“climbed hills and trees”), friendships with others (“skinned our hearts and skinned our knees”) and studying together (“learned of love and ABC’s”). The second verse has him addressing his father, who tried to give him a good upbringing and exert a positive influence on his undisciplined life (“I was the black sheep of the family”, “You tried to teach me right from wrong”, “wonder how I got along”) which included vices and revelry (“too much wine and too much song”). The final verse shows him addressing “Michelle”, possibly his daughter or niece, and stating how she lifted his spirit up in times of despair.
Seasons in the Sun topped the charts in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland, New Zealand, West Germany and both the UK and the U.S. It went top ten in the Netherlands.