“Those Were the Days” – Single by Mary Hopkin from the album Post Card
B-side: “Turn! Turn! Turn!”
Released: August 1968
Label: Apple
Songwriter: Boris Fomin, Gene Raskin
Producer: Paul McCartney
Charted No.2 in UK and No.1 in US
“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”, 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.
An American writer of Russian descent named Eugene Raskin put English lyrics to the song, making it the story of a person in a tavern ruminating on the glory days of their youth. He copyrighted the song in 1962 and sometimes performed it with his wife Francesca. A folk trio called The Limeliters recorded it that year.
Paul McCartney heard it at a London club called The Blue Angel, where he saw Raskin and his wife perform it. He sent to America to get a demo of the song and had Mary Hopkin, a singer from Wales, record it after she signed to the Beatles’ label, Apple Records. Released as her first single, it was a huge hit, going to #2 in America and on September 25, 1968, taking the top spot in the UK.
Mary Hopkin got her big break when, just after turning 18, she performed on the UK TV talent competition Opportunity Knocks and wowed the audience with her sweet soprano. Registering their approval on a device called a Clapometer, they voted Hopkin the winner by a landslide.
The British model Twiggy saw the show and telephoned Paul McCartney to tell him. He contacted Hopkin, and when he auditioned her for Apple Records, he liked what he heard and signed her. McCartney then produced her first session, recording “Those Were The Days” along with a cover of “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season),” which was used as the B-side of the single.
