Turn! Turn! Turn!
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"Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)", often abbreviated to "Turn! Turn! Turn!", is a song written and composed by Pete Seeger in the 1950s. Seeger waited until 1962 to record it, releasing the song on his album The Bitter and The Sweet on Columbia Records.
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[edit] Lyrics and title
The lyrics are taken almost verbatim from the King James version of the Bible (Ecclesiastes 3, verses 1–8). The Biblical text posits there being a time and place for all things: laughter and sorrow, healing and killing, war and peace, and so on. The lines are open to myriad interpretations, but as a song they are 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 written by Seeger himself.
The song is one of a few mainstream songs to set a large portion of scripture to music, other examples being The Melodians' "Rivers of Babylon", Sister Janet Mead's "The Lord's Prayer (Sister Janet Mead song)" and U2's ""40""
Handwritten lyrics to the song were among the documents donated to New York University by the Communist Party USA in March 2007[1].
[edit] Early folk versions
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.
[edit] The Byrds recording
The most successful recorded version of the song is the chart-topping single by McGuinn's pioneering folk-rock band The Byrds, released in October of 1965 (b/w "She Don't Care About Time" Columbia 43424). In December, it became the title song to the group's second studio album. The group performed it in the 1966 concert film The Big T.N.T. Show.
Nearly three decades after the Byrds released the song as a single, the recording featured prominently in the 1994 movie Forrest Gump.
After Joe Cocker's cover of "With a Little Help from My Friends", the song was the first to play on the first episode of the television series The Wonder Years.
[edit] Other cover versions
The song has been covered by a number of other artists:
- The Seekers recorded the song for their 1966 album Georgy Girl (also known as Come the Day)
- Welsh folk singer Mary Hopkin covered it as the b-side of 1968 hit "Those Were the Days". She later did a Welsh language version, titled "Tro, tro, tro".[citation needed]
- Country music singer Dolly Parton recorded it in 1984 for her The Great Pretender album, and again in 2005 for Those Were the Days.
- In 2000, David Pajo's post-rock band Papa M recorded an extended 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, appears their 2004 release Hole of Burning Alms.
- Singer and pianist Nina Simone recorded two versions of the song, one of which was released on her album To Love Somebody (1969).
- Canadian country music singer Jim Witter covered the song for his 2003 album Forgiveness.
- Adrienne Camp (Adie) also recorded the song on September 26, 2006 for her album Don't Wait, released through BEC Recordings.
- Bruce Springsteen, during his 2006 tour with the Seeger sessions band, covering Springsteen's release We Shall Overcome, played the song incidentally.[citation needed] Roger McGuinn subsequently appeared with Springsteen and the E Street Band at their Orlando show in 2008; McGuinn came onstage to perform a short set that included "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and "Mr. Tambourine Man".
- Sister Janet Mead covered the song on her album A Time to Sing.
- Dave Perkins did a cover of the song, a duet with Steve Taylor, on his 1987 album The Innocence.
- Larry Norman covered the song on his album Copper Wires (1998)
- Michael Knott covered the song on the Lifesavers' 1995 A Kiss Of Life album.
- In 1999, the japanese rock band Plastic Tree recorded the song with new lyrics written by the vocalist Ryutaro Arimura; the cover, titled Inori (祈り? "Praying"), was recorded for the single Tremolo.
- Andy Sturmer, lead singer and songwriter of Jellyfish recorded a cover of the song for an unknown project.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Patricia Cohen. "Communist Party USA Gives Its History to N.Y.U.", New York Times, 2007-3-20. Retrieved on 2007-08-02.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by "I Hear a Symphony" by The Supremes |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single (The Byrds version) December 4, 1965 (3 weeks) |
Succeeded by "Over and Over" by The Dave Clark Five |
