“Seasons in the Sun” was originally a French-language song written by Jacques Brel titled “Le Moribond (Seasons in the Sun).” Brel’s version was recorded and released in 1961. The famous Terry Jacks version, recorded and in 1973, has English lyrics written by American singer-poet Rod McKuen, modified by Jacks.
The song was a huge international hit for Canadian singer Jacks in 1974. His version has sold over 10 million copies worldwide, a feat which less than thirty singles have ever reached.
Terry’s wife Susan Jacks contributed backing vocals on “Seasons In The Sun.” She left the marriage in 1973, the year the song was recorded, but before the single and album Seasons In The Sun were released.
The B-side of the “Seasons in the Sun” 45-single is a song titled “Put the Bone In.” Yikes!
“Everybody’s Talkin’ ” was written by folk singer-songwriter Fred Neil who recorded the song (sometimes labeled as “Everybody’s Talkin’ (Echoes)”) in 1966 and included it on his second album. But it was Harry Nilsson’s version that became a big international hit in 1969. (Many people mistakenly believe it’s Glen Campbell who had the hit! It does sound like him, but it’s not him…)
Nilsson had recorded the song in 1967 and released it in early 1968 on his Aerial Ballet album. The featuring of Harry’s version of “Everybody’s Talkin’ ” in the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy brought global attention to the song and it reached #2 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and #6 on the Pop Singles chart. It also won a Grammy in 1969.
Harry Nilsson was a top-notch songwriter in his own right, but his biggest hits were written by others. For example, he had a #1 hit with “Without You” which was written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans of Badfinger, who had their own less successful earlier version of the song. On the other hand, Three Dog Night had a big hit with the Nilsson written song “One,” and The Monkees recorded a couple Nilsson tunes; “Cuddly Toy” and “Daddy’s Song.”
Harry Nilsson died of heart failure at his home, January 15, 1994. He was 52 years old.
When Tom Jones recorded “It’s Not Unusual” in November 1964 he was still an unknown singer. The song was written by Les Reed and Gordon Mills, and Tom Jones was used to record a demo of it with the intent of having Sandie Shaw later do a proper record. Shaw was impressed with Jones’ demo and recommended that he release his version instead.
A then-unknown teenage keyboard player named Reginald Dwight was brought in to play for the one day recording session as Jones’ regular keyboard player was absent. You may be familiar with “Reg” because he is now better known as Elton John!
Released in early 1965, “It’s Not Unusual” became the first hit for Jones, reaching number one in the UK, and peaking at #10 in the US.
The single was used as the theme song for This Is Tom Jones, his late ’60s-early ’70s variety TV series.
