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Vinyl L.P • Apple Records • SAPCOR 23.
1972 • U.K.
Produced by Paul McCartney, Tony Visconti & Mickie Most.
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Back cover.
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Labels.
Mary Hopkin
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Masters Of British Rock Vol. 1 · John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr · The Solo Years + Friends, Relatives & Special Guests
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1968 - produced by Paul McCartney on Apple Records and reaching number one around the world
1972 - Live at the Royal Festival Hall
1977 - with Tony Visconti, along with 'Goodbye'
in 2018 - with daughter Jessica Lee Morgan and son Morgan Visconti, as a 50th anniversary celebration
The lyrics of 'Those Were The Days' were written by Eugene Raskin (1909-2004) in 1962, but the melody and chords are much older, from a song called 'Dorogoi Dlinnoyu' composed by Boris Fomin (1900-1948) with lyrics by Konstantin Podrevsky. When Mary recorded the song in 1968, it was widely belived that it was based on a traditional Russian folk song.
Eugene Raskin had always claimed the entire copyright and did extremely well out of it. It should be noted that copyright expires 70 years after the death of the composer, at least in the UK, and so Boris's term would have expired in 2018, and any successors of his should have benefitted. However, it seems that even in Russia, Boris's legacy was suppressed by political powers. It's worth reading about his life here.
Paul McCartney first heard the song performed by Eugene Raskin and his wife Francesca, performing as a folk duo in the Blue Angel club in London. He kept the song in mind and when he worked with Mary for the first time, asked her to sing it.
Mary remembers:
"The recording was quite a momentous occasion for me. It was in Abbey Road Studios. There was a full orchestra there, which was quite intimidating. The song was fresh and new to me, even though I'd learnt it, so when we started recording I was very timid about it.
"Paul would come in and say, 'Think about the lyrics and who this person is.' I wasn't happy with what I'd done, so he said, 'Go home and think about it and we'll try again on Monday.' Which I did. And in the meantime John Lennon rang me at home in Wales and said, 'To err is human, to forgive divine. Just try again. You know you'll do it.' That was so sweet because Paul must have told him that I was nervous and didn't quite get the take. That was such a lovely thing to do.
"I went in on Monday and nailed it, they said... But I was more comfortable with it. Generally the song was about a much older person than I was. I was a little schoolgirl basically. Maybe that's what worked with the song, the fact that I was almost a child, singing an older woman's song. That's what people liked about it. But I felt privileged to have been given that song by Paul."
This recording is still owned and controlled by Apple Records. It can be distiguished by a cymbalum opening to the song.