Collaborations

Those Were The Days   b/w   Turn Turn Turn

Mary Hopkin

Those Were The Days - A-side Label Those Were The Days - B-side Label
Those Were The Days - A-side Label Those Were The Days - B-side Label

                            Note: See some single variations at the foot of this page !

The Beatles Contribution:  Paul as Producer.
Label Apple
Catalogue No. APPLE 2
Release Date 30th August 1968
U.K. Singles Chart Detail :
Entry Date :4th September 1968
Highest Position :1 ... from 25th September 1968 for 6 weeks
Weeks in Chart :21
Detail :
Side A    Side B
THOSE WERE THE DAYS
(Raskin)
MARY HOPKIN
  
TURN TURN TURN
(Seeger)
MARY HOPKIN

Both sides were produced by Paul McCartney.

Mary Hopkin was born in Wales on 3rd May 1950 in Pontardawe (just north of Swansea).
Mary was propelled to stardom following a succesful appearance on the classic I.T.V. (Thames) talent show "Opportunity Knocks" on which she won for TEN consecutive weeks. Contrary to popular belief it wasn`t Paul that "discovered" Miss Hopkin, in fact it was Twiggy that witnessed the show and recommended her to Paul. Paul produced the single, the A-side of which was originally a Russian folk song, and it went on to sell four million copies.
Mary also recorded the song in French, Spanish, German, Italian and Hebrew, giving it global appeal, topping the charts in 14 countries and giving it worldwide sales of over eight million.

In one of life's ironies it was the second Apple single that knocked the first Apple single off the top slot, meaning that "Hey Jude" thought by many to be one of the best Beatle singles ended up with spending a mere two weeks at the upper echelon. In fact, no other Beatle number one spent a shorter time there.

As an aside, Mary returned to the album charts in 1984 as a member of Oasis (no, not that "Oasis" !).
The 1984 variety featured Mary Hopkin, Peter Skellern, Julian Lloyd Webber, Mitch Dalton and Bill Lovelady.

To see where this single release sits in the apple releases, see the Apple Records Single Listing.

Those Were The Days - A-side Phillips Those Were The Days - B-side Phillips
Those Were The Days - Labels of Three-Pronged Phillips Pressing
 
Those Were The Days - A-side Later Pressing Those Were The Days - B-side Later Pressing
Those Were The Days - Labels of Later Pressing,
(Note the lighter green apple, no "Sold in the U.K." and extra "S" on Hopkin !!)

 

My thanks to correspondent Chris Taylor for assistance with this webpage
 


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