The Styrous® Viewfinder: 2026

May 3, 2026

45 RPMs 106: Mary Hopkin ~ Those Were the Days

45 RPM record

photo by Styrous®

Today is the birthday of Welsh singer, Mary Hopkin, who bust forth internationally with her wonderful song, Those Were the Days. I was in my early twenties when it did; I remember thinking what a marvelous take on what it must be like to be old and review your life. I danced madly to the bouncy, lively beat of it. I still fondly look back at the song and those early days of my life but now that I am there, I have a totally different perspective on it, my life and my aspirations. As they say, "hindsight is 20/20".

Those Were the Days was composed by Boris Fomin in 1924 but credited to Gene Raskin, who put English lyrics to Fomin's Russian romance song Dorogoi dlinnoyu, which originally had lyrics by the poet Konstantin Podrevsky. With Raskin's lyrics, the song is an evaluation of youth and romantic idealism, reminiscing about drinking, singing, and dancing in a tavern, imagining a rosy future which has not been fulfilled. Although it has a joyous feeling, it is wistful and, well, a little melancholy. It conveys the same feeling as the Peggy Lee song, Is That All There Is? I love that song as well. With both I feel, "Then let's keep dancing!"

Hopkin did some backup singing on albums by Tom Paxton, Ralph McTell, David Bowie (Low), Bert Jansch, the Radiators from Space, Thin Lizzy, Carmen, the Sarstedt Brothers, Osibisa, Sparks, Hazel O'Connor and Elaine Paige.

The "B" side of the record is the song Turn, Turn, Turn written by Pete Seeger in 1959. The lyrics – except for the title, which is repeated throughout the song, and the final two lines – consist of the first eight verses of the third chapter of the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes. The song was originally released in 1962 as To Everything There Is a Season on the folk group the Limeliters' album Folk Matinee, and then some months later on Seeger's own The Bitter and the Sweet album.

Mary Hopkin ~ Turn, Turn, Turn

45 RPM record

photo by Styrous®

Tracklist:

Side 1:

A - Those Were The Days, written by Gene Raskin - 5:05

Side 2:

B - Turn, Turn, Turn, written by Pete Seeger - 2:48

Companies, etc.

Mastered At – Capitol Studios, New York City
Pressed By – Capitol Records Pressing Plant, Scranton
Manufactured By – Apple Records, Inc.
Published By – TRO
Published By – Melody Trails, Inc.

Credits:

Producer – Paul McCartney

Notes:

Scranton Label Variant: "Mfg. by Apple Records, Inc." on 'B Side' label at bottom, and missing from 'A side'.
The reverse Scranton label variant here - Mary Hopkin - Those Were The Days

A: T.R.O. Organization
B: Melody Trails Inc. (BMI)

Runouts have a combination of both stamped and etched characters. "[IAM logo]" is stamped.

Barcode and Other Identifiers

Rights Society: BMI
Pressing Plant ID (Stamped in runouts): "IAM" in triangle logo
Matrix / Runout (Label side A): X46416
Matrix / Runout (Label side B): X46417
Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, variant 1): 45-X46416-P1 #2 45-70293-P1 [IAM logo]
Matrix / Runout (Runout side B, variant 1): 45-X46417-P1 45-46417-P1 [IAM logo]
Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, variant 2): 4̶5̶-̶7̶0̶2̶9̶3̶-̶P̶1 45-X46416-P1 #3 [IAM logo]
Matrix / Runout (Runout side B, variant 2): 45-X46417-P1#3 45-46417-P1 [IAM logo]
Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, variant 3): 4̶5̶-̶7̶0̶2̶9̶3̶-̶P̶1 45-X46416-P1 #2 [IAM logo]
Matrix / Runout (Runout side B, variant 3): 45-X46417-P1 [IAM logo] 45-46417-P1
Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, variant 4): 45-̶7̶0̶2̶9̶3̶-̶P̶1 45-X 46416-P1 #4 [IAM logo]
Matrix / Runout (Runout side B, variant 4): 45-4617-T2
Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, variant 5): 45-̶7̶0̶2̶9̶3̶-̶P̶1 45-X 46416-P1 [IAM logo]
Matrix / Runout (Runout side B, variant 5): 45-X46417-P1 45-46417-P1 [IAM logo]
Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, variant 6): 45-̶7̶0̶2̶9̶3̶-̶P̶1 45-X 46416-P1 #8 [IAM logo]
Matrix / Runout (Runout side B, variant 6): 45-X46417-P1 #7 45-46417-P1 [IAM logo]
Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, variant 7): 45-̶7̶0̶2̶9̶3̶-̶P̶1 45-X 46416-P1 #8 [IAM logo]
Matrix / Runout (Runout side B, variant 7): 45-̶7̶0̶2̶9̶4-̶P̶1 46417 45-X-46417-P1
Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, variant 8): 45-46416-T2 [IAM logo]
Matrix / Runout (Runout side B, variant 8): 45-46417-T2 [IAM logo]
Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, variant 9): 45-̶7̶0̶2̶9̶3̶-̶P̶1 45-X 46416-P1 #3 [IAM logo]
Matrix / Runout (Runout side B, variant 9): 45-X46417-P1 #6 45-46417-P1 [IAM logo]
Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, variant 10): 45-7̶0̶2̶9̶3̶-̶P̶1̶ 45-X46416-P1#2 [IAM logo]
Matrix / Runout (Runout side B, variant 10): 45-X46417-P1#5 4̶5̶-̶7̶0̶2̶9̶4̶-P1 [IAM logo]
Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, variant 11): 45-7̶0̶2̶9̶3̶-̶P̶1̶ 45-X46416-P1 [IAM logo]
Matrix / Runout (Runout side B, variant 11): 45-X46417-P1#5 4̶5̶-̶7̶0̶2̶9̶4̶ -P1 [IAM logo]

Mary Hopkin – Those Were The Days
Label: Apple Records – 1801
Format: Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single, Scranton Pressing
Country: US
Released: Aug 26, 1968
Genre: Rock, Pop, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Chanson, Pop Rock, Folk

Viewfinder links:

David Bowie

Boris Fomin

the Limeliters

Hazel O'Connor

Osibisa

Elaine Paige

Tom Paxton

Pete Seeger

Sparks

Thin Lizzy

Net links:

YouTube links:

Mary Hopkin ~ Those Were the Days

Sergey Lazarev ~ Dorogoi dlinnoyu (The long road)

What the hell! Let's keep dancing!

Styrous® ~ Sunday, April 3, 2026

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May 2, 2026

Pink Floyd ~ Another Brick in the Wall (PartII)

Forty-six years ago today, on Friday, May 2, 1980, The South African government banned the Pink Floyd song Another Brick in the Wall (PartII). Written by Roger Waters, Part 2 is a protest song against corporal punishment in schools, rigid and abusive schooling, and features a children's choir.

Part 2 was the second UK single for Pink Floyd, sold more than four million copies worldwide, topped singles charts in 14 countries, including the UK and the US, and was the UK Christmas No. 1 of 1979. It was nominated for a Grammy Award and ranked number 384 on the Rolling Stone list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

In Part 2, traumas involving abusive schoolteachers become bricks in the wall. In the sequence, children enter a school and march in unison through a meat grinder, becoming "putty-faced" clones, before rioting and burning down the school. The lyrics attracted controversy. The Inner London Education Authority described the song as "scandalous", and according to Renshaw, then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher "hated it". It was banned in South Africa in 1980 after it was adopted by supporters of a nationwide school boycott protesting instituted racial inequities in education under apartheid.

At the suggestion of the producer Bob Ezrin, Pink Floyd added elements of disco, which was popular at the time. When Ezrin heard the song with a disco beat, he was convinced it could become a hit but felt it needed to be longer and added two verses and two choruses. Engineer Nick Griffiths recorded children singing the second verse at Islington Green School, close to the Pink Floyd studio. Alun Renshaw, the head of music at the school, was enthusiastic, and said later: "I wanted to make music relevant to the kids – not just sitting around listening to Tchaikovsky. I thought the lyrics were great – 'We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control' ... I just thought it would be a wonderful experience for the kids." The children's choir in the recording featured 23 students, who practiced for about a week to prepare. Renshaw hid the lyrics from the headteacher, Margaret Maden, fearing she might stop the recording. Maden said: "I was only told about it after the event, which didn't please me. But on balance it was part of a very rich musical education." When Ezrin played the children's vocals to Waters, "There was a total softening of his face, and you just knew that he knew it was going to be an important record."

The children of Islington School received tickets to a Floyd concert, an album and a single. Though the school received a payment of £1,000, there was no arrangement for royalties for the children. Following a change to the copyright law of the United Kingdom in 1996, they became eligible for royalties from broadcasts. After the royalties agent Peter Rowan traced the choir members through the social network service Friends Reunited and other means, they successfully lodged a claim for royalties with the Performing Artists' Media Rights Association in 2004. For later shows, Waters employed local school choirs to perform the song with him.

Gilmour recorded his guitar solo using a 1955 Gibson Les Paul Gold Top guitar with P-90 pickups.

Part 2 performers

Roger Waters – bass guitar, vocals (unison with Gilmour)
David Gilmour – guitar, vocals (unison with Waters)
Nick Mason – drums
Richard Wright – Hammond organ, Prophet-5 synthesiser
Islington Green School students (organised by Alun Renshaw) – vocals

A live version of Another Brick in the Wall (PartII), with Cyndi Lauper on vocals, recorded on 21 July 1990 at Potsdamer Platz, was released as a single on the 10th of September, 1990. Korn recorded a decent cover in 2004.

Viewfinder links:

Bob Ezrin

David Gilmour

Nick Mason

Les Paul

Pink Floyd

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Margaret Thatcher

Roger Waters

Richard Wright

Net links:

YouTube links:

Korn ~ Another Brick in the Wall (PartII) (live) (8 mins.)

Pink Floyd ~ Another Brick in the Wall (PartII) (live) (6 mins., 35 secs.)

Styrous® ~ Saturday, May 2, 2026

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April 30, 2026

George Washington, President of the United States of America

Inaugural Address - 1889

Painting by Ramon De Elorriaga

On April 30, 1789, George Washington became the first president of the United States of America and served in that capacity until 1797. He is commonly known as the Father of His Country for his role in bringing about American independence.

The Battle of the Monongahela (also known as the Battle of Braddock's Field and the Battle of the Wilderness) took place on July 9, 1755, at the beginning of the French and Indian War. The defeat marked the end of the Braddock Expedition, a British military expedition, by which the British had hoped to capture Fort Duquesne and gain control of the strategic Ohio Country. The victory propelled Washington to the Presidency.