Terry Jacks - Seasons in the Sun (1974)

Seasons in the Sun is an English-language adaptation of the song Le Moribond by Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel with lyrics by American singer-poet Rod Mcuen. It became a worldwide hit in 1974 for Terry Jacks and became a Christmas Number 1 Hit in 1999 for Westlife. The Jacks version is one of the fewer than thirty all-time singles to have sold 10 Million (or more) copies worldwide.

The song is a dying protagonist's farewell to relatives and friends.

Goodbye, Michelle, my little one,

You gave me love and helped me find the sun,

And every time that I was down

You would always come around

And get my feet back on the ground;

Goodbye, Michelle, it's hard to die

When all the birds are singing in the sky,

Now that the spring is in the air,

With the flowers everywhere,

I wish that we could both be there!

The song was recorded in Vancouver, B.C. in 1973. Susan and Terry Jacks, of Poppy Family fame, made the decision to record the song when the Beach Boys, who were considering recording a version with Terry Jacks producing, decided to abandon their recording. The Jacks recorded it instead and Terry Jacks later released it on his own label. It immediately topped the record charts in the U.S. (where it was released on Bell Records), Canada, and the UK, selling over 14 million copies worldwide.

Jacks' version was released in the United States in December 1973, and made the Billboard Hot 100 a month later. On March 2, 1974, the song began a three-week run at No. 1 a top the Hot 100, and remained in the top 40 until almost Memorial Day weekend. Jacks' version also spent one week on the Easy Listening charts. Although he released several other singles that were moderately successful in Canada, "Seasons in the Sun" would become Jacks' only major solo hit in the United States.

Matthew Wilkening of AOL Radio would later rank Jacks' version of the song at 63 on the list of the 100 Worst Songs Ever, stating that a new T-shirt slogan should be: "He had joy, he had fun, he had seasons in the sun, and all we got was this lousy song!