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"It Was a Very Good Year" is a song composed by Ervin Drake in 1961 and originally recorded by Bob Shane of the Kingston Trio for their album Goin' Places. It was made famous by Frank Sinatra's version in D minor from his album September of my Years, which won the Grammy Award for Best Male Vocal Performance at the 8th Annual Grammy Awards in 1966 and became Sinatra's first number one Adult Contemporary single, also peaking at No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Description

The nostalgic and melancholic song recounts the type of girls with whom the singer had relationships at various years in his life: when he was 17, "small-town girls ... on the village green"; at 21, "city girls who lived up the stair"; at 35, "blue-blooded girls of independent means". Each of these years he calls "very good". In the song's final verse, the singer reflects that he is older, and in the autumn of his years, and he thinks back on his entire life "as vintage wine". All of these romances were sweet to him, like a wine from a very good (i.e., vintage) year.

Composition

Ervin Drake composed the song in 1961 at the suggestion of record producer Artie Mogull, who told Drake that Bob Shane of The Kingston Trio needed a solo to include in the group's upcoming album Goin' Places. Drake wrote the song in less than a day, although he had been considering employing the metaphor of life as a vintage wine in a lyric for several years prior.

Ervin Drake's inspiration to write the song was his then wife-to-be, Edith Vincent Bermaine. She was a showgirl whom he had dated and eventually married twenty years after the song was written.

Notable covers

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• The Kingston Trio introduced the song on their album Goin' Places (1961). This is the recording that influenced Frank Sinatra to want to record his own version.
• Lonnie Donegan released it as a 45 rpm single on Pye Records in 1963.
• The Modern Folk Quartet recorded it on their eponymous first album The Modern Folk Quartet (1963).
• Chad & Jeremy's version was released in March 1965 as the B-side of "What Do You Want From Me?" and then included on their compilation album More Chad & Jeremy the following year.
• Frank Sinatra recorded it for his September of My Years album (1965) and released a stripped-down performance on his Sinatra at the Sands live album (1966)
• The Turtles had a Canadian hit with their version (Quality 1791X) in early 1966.
• William Shatner released a spoken-word rendition with instrumental accompaniment on his 1968 album The Transformed Man, juxtaposed with an excerpt from Hamlet.
• Paul Young covered the song on his self-titled album (1997)
• The Reverend Horton Heat recorded a version of the song that was released as a single in 2000.
• British pop star Robbie Williams recorded a version for his album Swing When You're Winning (2001), in duet with Sinatra's original vocals. The instrumental track was also sampled from Sinatra's first recording.
• Ray Charles included it on his 2004 Grammy winning album Genius Loves Company as a duet with Willie Nelson.
• Australian entertainer Bob Downe performed a unique rendition of the song replacing the original lyrics with Australian references during his Viva Bob Vegas Tour of 2022.
• Female singers Della Reese and Marlena Shaw covered the song with a female viewpoint in the lyric about their male former lovers. Reese's cover came out in 1966 and Shaw's from her album Take a Bite was released in 1979. Reese's version was a charting single on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 99 in 1966.

In popular media

• In 1971, Michael Jackson sang a parody of this song in a skit with Diana Ross during the television special Diana!, which aired on the ABC-TV network.
• Mel Tormé hosted a 1971 summer television show named It Was a Very Good Year, using the song as opening and closing theme music.
• The Muppets Statler and Waldorf (Richard Hunt and Jim Henson) sing the song in episode 407 of The Muppet Show from 1979.
• Frank Sinatra's version of the song is featured in the Spike Lee film Jungle Fever (1991).
• In a 1993 season 4 episode of The Simpsons ("Duffless"), Homer Simpson (Dan Castellaneta) sings a parody of this song entitled "I Drank Some Very Good Beer", recounting the first beer he ever purchased (with a fake ID, on which the name was Brian McGee), and he "stayed up listening to Queen."
• Sinatra's version is used in the opening of the second season of The Sopranos (2000), "Guy Walks into a Psychiatrist's Office...", during a montage showing the characters' activities over the previous year.
• In 2005, They Might Be Giants parodied this song on their first podcast.
• Alain Resnais used the Sinatra recording over the closing credits of his film You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet (2012).

See also

• List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1966 (U.S.)

References

1. Rubeck, Shaw, Blake et al., The Kingston Trio On Record (Naperville IL: KK Inc, 1986), p. 46
2. ^ Friedwald, Will (2009-04-02). "When He Was 46 it Was a Very Good Year - WSJ". Online.wsj.com. Retrieved 2014-06-20.
3. Gilliland, John (1969). "Show 22 - Smack Dab in the Middle on Route 66: A skinny dip in the easy listening mainstream. [Part 1]" (audio). Pop Chronicles. University of North Texas Libraries.
4. Whitburn, Joel (1996). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 6th Edition (Billboard Publications)
5. Browne, Ray Broadus; Ambrosetti, Ronald J. (1993). Continuities in Popular Culture: The Present in the Past & the Past in the Present and Future. Popular Press. ISBN 9780879725938.
6. "50 years later, a look back at Sinatra's influential "It Was a Very Good Year"". 2 September 2015. Archived from the original on 8 January 2021. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
7. American Icons: Frank Sinatra. Stonesong Press. 2018-04-15. ISBN 9781493033010.
8. Bush, William (2013). Greenback Dollar - The Incredible rise of the Kingston Trio. Lanham MD: Scarecrow Press. p. 221. ISBN 9780810881921.
9. Bush, p. 222
10. Friedwald, Will (April 2, 2009). "When He Was 46 it Was a Very Good Year". The Wall Street Journal. New York, New York. Retrieved May 6, 2002.
11. Bernstein, Adam (January 15, 2015). "Ervin Drake, songwriter of 'It Was a Very Good Year,' dies at 95". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2015-01-15.
12. Peppiat, Wheaton et. el. Sinatra: A Man and his Music. Warner Bros. DVD, prod. Hemion, Raskin, 1999
13. "Modern Folk Quartet - Modern Folk Quartet | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
14. "Ray Charles - Genius Loves Company Album Reviews, Songs & More | AllMusic". AllMusic.
15. Whitburn, Joel (2013). Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles, 14th Edition: 1955-2012. Record Research. p. 699.
16. "Michael Jackson - It Was A Very Good Year - Diana TV Show Special 1971 - GMJHD". youtube.com. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
17. "Ervin Drake, songwriter - obituary". telegraph.co.uk. The Telegraph. 27 January 2015. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
18. ""The Simpsons" Duffless (TV Episode 1993)". imdb.com. IMDb, Inc. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
19. "Songfacts, It Was A Very Good Year". songfacts.com. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
20. Rabasca Roepe, Lisa (2 September 2015). "50 Tears Later, a Look Back at Sinatra's Influential "It Was a Very Good Year"". AVClub.com. Archived from the original on 8 January 2021. Retrieved 22 February 2020.

• 1961 songs
• 1966 singles
• Frank Sinatra songs
• Della Reese songs
• Reprise Records singles
• Songs about old age
• Songs about nostalgia
• Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
• Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals
• Songs written by Ervin Drake