"Seasons in the Sun" is an English-language adaptation of the 1961 Belgian song "Le Moribond" ("The Dying Man") by singer-songwriter Jacques Brel[2] with lyrics rewritten in 1963 by singer-poet Rod McKuen[3] portraying a dying man's farewell to his loved ones. It became a worldwide hit in 1974 for singer Terry Jacks and became a Christmas number one in the UK in 1999 for Westlife.
Background and lyrics
The first version of the song was recorded by Brel, who reportedly wrote it in a brothel in Tangiers. Sung in a marching tempo, it tells of a man dying of a broken heart and shows him saying his last farewells first to his close friend Emile, then to a priest, next to an acquaintance named Antoine, and finally to his wife, who has cheated on him numerous times with Antoine. Despite knowing of Antoine being his wife's lover, he wishes no ill upon him but tells him to take care of his wife. American Rod McKuen translated the lyrics into English. 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. He deemed the original version and its translations as "too macabre". The inspiration for the rewritten lyrics was his close friend Roger, who was suffering from acute leukemia and died four months later. The Terry Jacks rendition, which was later dedicated to the friend, has the dying man giving his last words to his loved ones with whom he shared his life, much like the original. However, unlike the Brel version, the man does not die broken-hearted but instead, acknowledges the rights and wrongs of his actions in life as he passes away peacefully.
In the rewritten version, the man first addresses a close friend whom he had known since childhood and reminisces about the happy times they had, such as playing and studying together ("climbed hills and trees", "learned of love and ABC's") and friendships with others ("skinned our hearts and skinned our knees"). He then addresses 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 overindulgence, vices, and revelry ("too much wine and too much song"). The man finally addresses a "Michelle", recounting how she had lifted his spirit up in times of despair. At the end of each verse, the man reminds all three that he is always present in spirit when they visit places or see people.[4]
Recording
According to Jacks, the Beach Boys asked him to be their producer during the sessions for the band's album Surf's Up. On July 31, 1970, they attempted a rendition of the "Seasons in the Sun", but the session went badly, and the track was never finished. Afterwards, Mike Love told an interviewer: "We did record a version [of 'Seasons'] but it was so wimpy we had to throw it out. ... It was just the wrong song for us."[5] The recording remained unreleased until the 2021 compilation Feel Flows.[6]
Jacks recorded his rendition in Vancouver in 1973.[citation needed] The piano arpeggio parts and double bass parts in the second verse were done by a young David Foster.[7]
Release
Jacks released his version as a single in 1973 on his own label, Goldfish Records. "Put the Bone In", an original composition about burying a deceased pet dog, was included as the B-side. The single soon topped the record charts in the US (where it was released on Bell Records), in Canada, and the UK,[8] selling over 14 million copies worldwide.[9]
Jacks's version was released in the United States in December 1973 and made the Billboard Hot 100 a month later. On March 2, 1974, the song began a three-week run at number one atop the Hot 100 and remained in the top 40 until almost Memorial Day weekend. Jacks's version also spent one week on the Easy Listening charts.[10]Billboard ranked it as the number two song for 1974.[11] Although he released several other singles that were moderately successful in Canada, "Seasons in the Sun" would become Jacks's only major solo hit in the United States.[12] In Canada, the single (Gold Fish GF 100) reached number one on the RPM magazine charts January 26, 1974, and remained there four weeks.
Though the song enjoyed contemporary success, some modern critics take a dimmer view, considering it overly sentimentalized. Jacks's version has been held up as an example of bad music, such as having been listed as one of the worst pop songs ever recorded and ranking number five in a similar CNN poll in 2006.[13]
Jacks also released a German-language version in Germany with lyrics by Gerd Müller-Schwanke, "In den Gärten der Zeit".[14]
Irish boy bandWestlife released a cover of "Seasons in the Sun" in December 1999, as a double A-side with "I Have a Dream" and as a triple A-side in Australia with both "I Have a Dream" and "Flying Without Wings" included.[54] The release became the UK's Christmas number-one single of 1999, beating Cliff Richard's charity single "The Millennium Prayer" into the No. 2 spot, and also became the group's fourth UK number-one single. It then extended its peak into January 2000, spending a total of 17 weeks on the UK chart.[55] The song was the 26th best-selling single of 1999 in the UK and it was also the final number one single of the 1990s.
^McKuen, Rod (April 8, 2000). "Remembering Jacques Brel". Flight Plan. Retrieved February 20, 2020. My first experience with Brel consisted of doing an unauthorized adaptation of 'Le Moribund', which I called 'Seasons in the Sun'... I subsequently learned that Brel had received my recording...
.jpg)
