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Those Were the Days: Susan Lainey

It's cover day here at Coffee.

This is best remembered as a song hit by Mary Hopkin, but it was first released by the Limeliters in 1962. This cover, from Susan Lainey, is on her self titled album released in 2005.

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This entry was posted on April 2, 2010 at 11:53 am and is filed under Music. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

21 Comments on “Those Were the Days: Susan Lainey”

  2. Christer's avatar Christer Says:

    April 2, 2010 at 12:28 pm

    I do like this version (I´ve never heard it before) But the one with Mary Hopkins will for always be the one I like the most. The swedish wersion with Anita Lindblom is another favourite. She has a very deep voice that fits good to this song.

  3. katry's avatar katry Says:

    April 2, 2010 at 12:36 pm

    Christer,
    I too always have Mary Hopkin in mind when I think of this song. I think it is usually that way with covers-it’s the original we love the best. I’ll have to find the Anita Lindblom and give it a listen.

  4. Christer's avatar Christer Says:

    April 2, 2010 at 1:08 pm

    The swedish version is called: Ja det var då min vän.

    The lettre Å may be hard for You to write but ä is easier just press ¨ before an a and You got it 🙂
    Christer.

  5. Rick OzTown's avatar Rick OzTown Says:

    April 2, 2010 at 3:48 pm

    Thanks for those hard-to-type letters, Christer. Here’s the live version by Marie Lindberg & Peter Jöback in 2007

    And the version you like by
    Anita Lindblom – Ja det var då

    • katry's avatar katry Says:

      April 2, 2010 at 3:59 pm

      Rick,
      That’s so cool having it right in the comments. I went looking and didn’t find it for download, but at least I get to hear it.

  6. katry's avatar katry Says:

    April 2, 2010 at 3:51 pm

    Christer,
    I actually don’t have that symbol on my keyboard-that’s a copy and paste sort of ä for me.

    I’ve looked on a couple of my download sites but have come up empty, but I’m not giving up!

  7. Christer's avatar Christer Says:

    April 3, 2010 at 12:20 am

    I can´t see what Rick has put in here(Anita Lindblom), i´s just a big empty square.
    Christer.

    • Rick OzTown's avatar Rick OzTown Says:

      April 3, 2010 at 12:31 am

      Christer, it is a player for a YouTube video. There should be at least a place where you can click on the link for the Lindblom performance. If you cannot click on that, perhaps Kat can send you the link. Failing that, you can simply do a YouTube.com search for the artist’s name and the first four words of the title you gave us. If I paste the URL in here again, it will result in that big, blank square again for you. 😦

    • katry's avatar katry Says:

      April 3, 2010 at 12:38 am

      Christer,
      Here is the youtube link where you can hear the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmMzWGitlY0

      Maybe it is your browser which gives you an empty square. When I used blogger, I had to post the songs through IE as the slide didn’t show on Firefox which I usually use.

  8. sblake's avatar sblake Says:

    April 3, 2010 at 1:55 am

    The origins of the melody appear to be strongly claimed by the Russians, and Russian gypsies consider it their song. The name of this song seems to be “Dorogo’ Dlinnoyu” and translated means “By a long road (or way)” or “Along a long road (or way)” or “On a long way.” Some sources claim it was written by two Russian composers – B. Fomin (music) and K. Podrevsky (lyrics) at the end of the 19th century or in the beginning of 20th century. There is another song, Russian title given as “Darogoi Dli Mayou.” calling itself “Dear to Me.” this too is supposed to be a version of “Dorogo Dlinnoyu,” first recorded by Alexander Wertinsky in the 1920s
    In the 1950s Annikki Tahtiand recorded this in her native Finnish language.
    In 1962, Gene Raskin took the melody and wrote English lyrics to it. It was popularized in the US by the folk trio The Limeliters.
    In 1965, Paul McCartney saw Raskin and his wife perform this in a London club. McCartney remembered the performance 3 years later, when The Beatles formed Apple Records. In 1968, British model Twiggy telephoned McCartney about a singer who performed on the UK TV program Opportunity Knocks (the US had a similar TV show in the ’90s – Star Search). Three-time winner Mary Hopkin was a 17-year-old from Wales who had people talking about her performances. McCartney returned to London and auditioned Hopkin. He was impressed by her voice and recommended that she record “an American folk song” that he heard a few years earlier, “Those Were the Days.”
    The single was released simultaneously with the Beatles’ “Hey Jude.” While “Hey Jude” was #1 for nine weeks in the US, “Those Were the Days” was #2 for four of them and knocked the Beatles out of #1 in the UK charts. Not bad for the first two single releases of Apple Records.Versions of the song were also recorded in Spanish, French, Italian and German by Hopkin and McCartney. John Lennon’s first wife, Cynthia, also recorded a version.

    • katry's avatar katry Says:

      April 3, 2010 at 9:47 am

      sblake,
      Again, all these songs I thought sprang up recently have pedigrees longer than I’d ever imagine. I can actually get that this may have originated with the Gypsies-it has the sound and the lyrics. Not that I know Gypsy music all that well, but I’ve heard it in films and I have one recording from Rough Guide called Gypsy Swing, of all things.

  9. Christer's avatar Christer Says:

    April 3, 2010 at 6:42 am

    Thanks for the link Kat! I have had troubles lately with Youtube and my own blog, unable to put them in there.

    So it might be a gypsie song! Considering the sound of the song I would like to say that it´s most possibly so. But I had no idea of that.
    Christer.

  10. cyork's avatar cyork Says:

    May 9, 2010 at 12:07 am

    i can’t find keep the coffee coming blog anymore-please help

    • katry's avatar katry Says:

      May 9, 2010 at 12:20 am

      This is it!! I got erased from Blogger for music infringement and moved over here. The set up is different but everything else is pretty much the same. It happened when I was in the middle of something so I didn’t get a chance t spread the word until after it had happened.

      I’m glad you found me!1


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