Softpanorama
May the source be with you, but remember the KISS principle ;-)
Contents Bulletin Scripting in shell and Perl Network troubleshooting History Humor

Russian Romance: Those Were the Days on YouTube

News Main page Recommended Links Selected Songs Selected female singers Selected male singers Waltz Choirs Russian interpretation of foreign hits
Romances Songs of the wartime Duets Old Russian Rock Groups Bards Russian Basso Profondo Classic Ukrainian songs Songs from Famous Russian Cartoons Balalaika Hits
Russian Tango Female Vocal Groups Songs from Popular Russian Films Eugene Onegin       Humor Etc

Those Were the Days (song) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Music was written by Boris Fomin (1900-1948). In 1926 Vertinsky made one of the earliest recordings of the song "Dorogoi dlinnoyu" ("Дорогой длинною" or "Very Long Road"), written by Boris Fomin (1900–1948) with words by the poet Konstantin Podrevskii, which, with English lyrics by Gene Raskin, was a major hit for Mary Hopkin in 1968 as Those Were the Days. 

Lyrics by Gene Raskin is different from the Russian variant (although general nostalgia theme is very close), so this is a different song with the same music. Re-birth of the song  was due to  mary hopkin - those were the days-68  arranged by Paul McCartney. Mary Hopkins/Paul McCartney interpretation had a hit, yet few knew about the origin of the melody and the original composer was never credited.  Anyway most Russian and east European listeners instantly recognized that that the melody is exact copy of a Russian song.

Best performers include Mary Hopkin  Vicky Leandros, Gigliola Cinquetti,   and Dalida. Many other singers performed it, for example Helena Paparizou

 
English text by Gene Raskin
Once upon a time there was a tavern,
Where we used to raise a glass or two.
Remember how we laughed away the hours,
And dreamed of all the great things we would do.

Refrain:
Those were the days my friend,
We'd thought they'd never end,
We'd sing and dance for-ever and a day,
We'd live the life we choose,
We'd fight and never lose,
For we were young and sure to have our way.
Lalala lah lala, lalala lah lala
Those were the days, oh yes, those were the days.

Then the busy years when rushing by us.
We lost our starry notions on the way.
If by chance I'd see you in the tavern,
We'd smile at one another and we'd say:
Refrain:

Just tonight I stood before the tavern,
Nothing seemed the way it used to be.
In the glass I saw a strange reflection,
Was that lonely person really me.
Refrain:

Through the door there came familiar laughter.
I saw your face and heard you call my name.
Oh, my friend, we're older but no wiser,
For in our hearts the dreams are still the same.
Refrain:

Old News ;-)

[Sep 7, 2009]  Nikolay Baskov Those Were the Days

[Sep 5, 2009] dolly parton- those were the days

"I like this version, but I still like Mary's better. Dolly made it more western which is nice."

[Sep 5, 2009] Vadim Kolpakov & VIA Romen Those Were The Days My Friend

[Dec 30, 2008]  Дорогой длинною Dorogoj dlinnoju śpiewa Borys Somerschaf

[Dec 30, 2008] Дорогой длинною песня Коренівський Іван

Recommended Links

Mary Hopkins

Dolly Parton

Russian performances

French version (Le temps des fleurs)

is a single made famous by French singer Dalida but I prefer Vicky Leandros performance.  It was released in 1968.

This is one of my most favorite songs. It is the only song from her that I like very much. However, the song is originally Russian...  Namely, I was quite surprised when I discovered that the song was exact copy of Russian song "Dorogoj Dlinnoju" from 1920s (I heard it on a new CD of Manca Izmajlova).

Other artists

richpat (8 months ago)

Not an exact copy (crunchy3d) the music was written by Boris Fomin who was Russian, the Lyrics used on mary's version were writtrn by Gene Raskin, an American, he and his partner Francesca were the duo whom Paul McCartney heard singing the song, which he later produced for Mary Hopkin...
The words in the Russian song you refer to "Dorogoi dlinnoyu" were written by Konstantin Podrevskii and have a different meaning.
for more information go to maryhopkin.net 

Instrumental

Etc

Most popular humor pages:

Manifest of the Softpanorama IT Slacker Society : Ten Commandments of the IT Slackers Society : Computer Humor Collection : BSD Logo Story : The Cuckoo's Egg  : C++ Humor : ARE YOU A BBS ADDICT? : Object oriented programmers of all nations :  C Humor : Financial Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : Richard Stallman Related Humor : Admin Humor : Perl-related Humor : Linus Torvalds Related humor :  PseudoScience Related Humor : Networking Humor  : Shell Humor: Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2012 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2013 : Java Humor : Software Engineering Humor : Sun Solaris Related Humor : The Most Comprehensive Collection of Editor-related Humor : Microsoft plans to buy Catholic Church : Education Humor : IBM Humor :  Assembler-related Humor :  VIM Humor Computer Viruses Humor : Bright tomorrow is rescheduled to a day after tomorrow : Classic Computer Humor : Best Russian Programmer Humor : Russian Musical Humor : The Perl Purity Test :  Politically Incorrect Humor : GPL-related Humor : OFM Humor : IDS Humor : Real Programmers Humor : Scripting Humor : Web Humor : Programming Language Humor : Goldman Sachs related humor : Greenspan humor :

The Last but not Least

Copyright © 1996-2013 by Dr. Nikolai Bezroukov. www.softpanorama.org was created as a service to the UN Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) in the author free time. This document is an industrial compilation designed and created exclusively for educational use and is distributed under the Softpanorama Content License. Site uses AdSense so you need to be aware of Google privacy policy. Original materials copyright belong to respective owners. Quotes are made for educational purposes only in compliance with the fair use doctrine. This is a Spartan WHYFF (We Help You For Free) site written by people for whom English is not a native language. Grammar and spelling errors should be expected. The site contain some broken links as it develops like a living tree...

You can use PayPal to make a contribution, supporting hosting of this site with different providers to distribute and speed up access. Currently there are two functional mirrors: softpanorama.info (the fastest) and softpanorama.net.

Disclaimer:

The statements, views and opinions presented on this web page are those of the author and are not endorsed by, nor do they necessarily reflect, the opinions of the author present and former employers, SDNP or any other organization the author may be associated with. We do not warrant the correctness of the information provided or its fitness for any purpose.

Last modified: March 24, 2013