"It Was a Very Good Year" is a song Ervin Drake
composed in 1961 for and originally recorded by Bob Shane with The Kingston
Trio. It was subsequently made famous by Frank Sinatra's version in D minor, which
won the Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Male in 1966. Gordon Jenkins
was awarded Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying
Vocalist(s) for the Sinatra version. This single peaked at #28 on the U.S. pop
chart and became Sinatra's first #1 single on the Easy Listening charts. That
version can be found on Sinatra's 1965 album September of My Years, and was
featured in The Sopranos season two opener, "Guy Walks into a
Psychiatrist's Office...". A live, stripped-down performance is included
on his Sinatra at the Sands album.
The phrase "It was a very good year" is often applied to
wine, as the vintages differ in quality. Here, Sinatra sings about the years he
remembers fondly in his romantic life and the girls that were part of it. As
he's now older, he looks back fondly on these memories, bringing up the wine
analogy as the memories have aged well with time.
It Was A Very Good Year
When I was seventeen, it was a very good year
It was a very good year for small town girls
And soft summer nights
We'd hide from the lights
On the village green
When I was seventeen
When I was twenty-one, it was a very good year
It was a very good year for city girls
Who lived up the stairs
With all that perfumed hair
And it came undone
When I was twenty-one
When I was thirty-five, it was a very good year
It was a very good year for blue-blooded girls
Of independent means
We'd ride in limousines
Their chauffeurs would drive
When I was thirty-five
But now the days are short, I'm in the autumn of my years
And I think of my life as vintage wine
From fine old kegs
From the brim to the dregs
It poured sweet and clear
It was a very good year
On the TV show The Sopranos, which is about a quirky crime family from
New Jersey, this song was used to open the second season and show how events
have progressed since the previous season. Sinatra, who was a New Jersey
native, was often associated with organized crime.
This was parodied on The Simpsons episode "Duffless" (1993)
as Homer poured his beloved Duff beer down the drain. He sang:
When I was seventeen
I drank a very good beer
I drank a very good beer
I purchased with a fake I.D.
My name was 'Brian McGee'
I stayed up listening to Queen
When I was seventeen...
About the Singer
Frank Sinatra was one of the most popular entertainers of
the 20th century, forging a career as an award-winning singer and film actor.
Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, on December 12, 1915, Frank
Sinatra rose to fame singing big band numbers. In the '40s and '50s, he had a
dazzling array of hit songs and albums and went on to appear in dozens of
films, winning a supporting actor Oscar for From Here to Eternity. He left behind
a massive catalog of work that includes iconic tunes like "Love and
Marriage," "Strangers in the Night," "My Way" and
"New York, New York." He died on May 14, 1998 in Los Angeles,
California.
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