I’ve got too many mp3s to keep track of anymore . . . so I wasn’t all that surprised this morning when I noticed the Beach Boys’ version of “Seasons in the Sun” sitting there in the stash. It’s the version that Terry Jacks produced, the one that inspired him to do his own version, which became one of the most reviled records of the 1970s.
I can understand why the Beach Boys didn’t release theirs—it isn’t very good. The lead vocal is terrible (is that Brian?), and the song clearly benefits from the lyric changes Jacks would make. In the last verse of this version, the singer bids farewell to his wife:
Adieu, Francois, my trusted wife
Without you I’d have had a lonely life
You cheated lots of times but then
I forgave you in the end
Though your lover was my friend
Adieu, Francois, it’s hard to die
When all the birds are singing in the sky
Now that the spring is in the air
With your lovers everywhere
Just be careful I’ll be there
Sounds like he’s spending his last breath threatening revenge in the afterlife. It all comes across as a little too callous. You might even say it’s a little too French.
The provenance of the recording is hard to track. Some sources say it was recorded in 1973, while others say 1970. In any case, it almost saw daylight in 1977 when the Beach Boys discovered they owed Reprise Records one more album before they could move to a new label. They planned a Christmas album featuring new recordings and stuff from the vaults (which would have included “Seasons in the Sun”), but the project was scrapped. The new tracks appeared on the disastrous M.I.U Album in 1978; some of the rest remained buried until the 1998 release Ultimate Christmas. “Seasons in the Sun,” so far as I can tell, remains available only as a bootleg.
Some of the sources on the Terry Jacks recording say that Link Wray provides the guitar intro. But the twangy guitar intro on the Beach Boys version sounds like it could be him, too.
Recommended Reading: Popdose picks 100 favorite singles of the last 50 years. I didn’t contribute to the list, but I don’t find much on it with which to quarrel.
“Seasons in the Sun”/Beach Boys (bootleg)
Filed under: Tracks
The song itself is a bad fit for the Beach Boys. There’s no handle there for Brian and the Boys to grab “Seasons” and make it truly theirs.
The Jacks recording pushes neither love nor hate buttons for me, but hearing the BBoys’ take gives me much more of an appreciation for what Terry was able to accomplish. Thanks for posting it.
Wow…I didn’t even know this existed. It is kind of cheesy, but as a kid I was a fan of the Terry Jacks hit. I even bought the 45, which I still have….and then there’s also Nirvana’s version, with Kurt on drums and vocals, Dave Grohl on bass and Krist Noveselic on guitar. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO4BF67pvsc.
Thank you for posting this one. Just when you think you know everything there is to know about the Beach Boys’ music something new comes along.