Turn! Turn! Turn! (song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Turn! Turn! Turn!," also known by its full title "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There Is A Season)," is a song written by Pete Seeger, wherein Seeger set text from the Bible to music, specifically, a reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes, 3:1-8. Although he wrote it in the 1950s, Seeger waited until 1962 to record it, releasing the song on his The Bitter and The Sweet album on Columbia Records.
The Biblical text posits there being a time and place for all things, laughter to sorrow, healing to killing, war and peace; the lines thus open to myriad interpretations. As a song, however, the text is commonly performed as a plea for world peace, with stress on the closing line: "a time for peace, I swear it's not too late," the latter phrase being the only part of the lyric composed by Seeger himself. It is one of few mainstream songs to set a large portion of scripture to song.
The song first appeared, several months before the Seeger version, on an album by the folk group The Limeliters on RCA Records, Folk Matinee, under the title "To Everything There Is A Season." One of their backing musicians, Jim McGuinn (a.k.a. Roger McGuinn), would later work with folk singer Judy Collins, rearranging the song to suit her style, now entitled "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There Is A Season)", for her Elektra album of 1964, Judy Collins #3.
The most famous version is the chart-topping single by McGuinn's famous rock band The Byrds, released in October of 1965, and one of the defining records of the entire decade.
The song has been covered by a number of other artists, including Welsh folk singer Mary Hopkin, appearing as the flipside of her Paul McCartney-produced international smash hit single from 1968, "Those Were the Days." Country music singer Dolly Parton recorded it in 1984 for her The Great Pretender album, and again in 2005 for Those Were the Days, thereby duplicating both sides from the Hopkin single. In 2000, David Pajo's post-rock band Papa M recorded an extra-long improvisation based on "Turn! Turn! Turn!," agreeing to continue playing their version of the song in a studio in Portland, Oregon until the tape ran out. Their first and only take, containing no lyrics, is 16 minutes and 22 seconds long and can be found on their 2004 release Hole of Burning Alms.
Adrienne Camp (Adie) has also recorded a version of the song, which was released on her album Don't Wait, on September 26, 2006. Don't Wait was released through BEC Recordings.
2006 - Bruce Springsteen - During the tour with the Seeger sessions band, covering Springsteen release "We Shall Overcome", Springsteen played the song incidentally.
The Byrds' 1965 recording of the song was among those featured prominently in the 1994 movie Forrest Gump.
Handwritten lyrics to the song were among the documents turned over to New York University by the Communist Party USA in March 2007.
| Preceded by "I Hear a Symphony" by The Supremes |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single (Byrds version) December 4, 1965 |
Succeeded by "Over and Over" by The Dave Clark Five |
