Terry Jacks – ‘Seasons In The Sun’

18 April 1974

Sometimes my French still comes in handy. ‘Seasons In The Sun’ is a translation and cover of a Jacques Brel song called ‘Le Moribond’, a title which means ‘The Dying Man’. Brel’s original, like other songs of his, is set to an upbeat martial tempo, and it has a cynical, worldly-wise humour; his narrator’s chorus has poetic bravado in the face of death, but his farewell verses are sung respectively to a dull-sounding friend, a local curate with whom he didn’t share the same faith, an enemy who was having an affair with his wife, and the cheating wife herself. It’s not one of the better Brel songs—look up footage of him performing ‘Ne Me Quitte Pas’ on stage to understand why he’s still so influential and revered—but it still shows some flashes of the Brel genius.

Cynicism and bravado are not characteristics of ‘Seasons In The Sun’. Its lyrics are mostly from that batch of Brel originals adapted into English by Rod McKuen, whose rendering of ‘Ne Me Quitte Pas’ as ‘If You Go Away’ was covered by Dusty Springfield. Compared to the first recording of ‘Seasons In The Sun’ in the ’60s by The Kingston Trio, Jacks changed the bittersweet verse about the unfaithful wife to a saccharine one about an unspecified Michelle—presumably a love interest or a child but possibly a pet—which has more in common with the teary, tragic ending of the then-recent cinema smash Love Story. The shadowy guitar riff at the start may be foreboding but on the whole sounds out of place: ‘Seasons In The Sun’ is pure simpering melodramatic kitsch. Jacks’ quavering voice, forever teetering on the edge of waterworks, copperfastens the song’s incitement to weepiness. That and the goofily nostalgic sing-song chorus were enough to keep ‘Seasons In The Sun’ on radios and in brains for the following quarter-century. It sits with ‘Honey’, ‘Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep‘ and ‘Billy, Don’t Be A Hero’ in that weird sub-genre of maudlin, schmaltzy early-’70s bubblegum-pop death ditties, and surely ranks as one of the most widely popular yet deeply detested chart-topping hits of all time.

You will recall that ‘Seasons In The Sun’ was one half of the Westlife double-whammy that topped the Irish and UK charts at the turn of the millennium. I wonder if their version has now overwritten Jacks’ iteration in people’s hearts, or perhaps cured society of its craving for ‘Seasons In The Sun’ altogether. Westlife were managed by Louis Walsh, so they were no strangers to ’70s bubblegum schmaltz. But lest you think nothing of the Brel original’s spirit remained, Westlife were managed by Louis Walsh, so they were no strangers to cynicism either.