Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" is a contemporary folk song. The first three verses were written by Pete Seeger in 1955, and published in Sing Out! magazine.[1] Additional verses were added by Joe Hickerson in May 1960, who turned it into a circular song.[2] Its rhetorical "where?" and meditation on death place the song in the ubi sunt tradition.[3][better source needed] In 2010, the New Statesman listed it as one of the TOP 20 Political Songs".[4]
The 1964 release of the song as a Columbia Records 45 single, 13-33088, by Pete Seeger wasINDUCTED into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002 in theFOLK category.
==Composition==
Seeger found inspiration for the song in October 1955, while on aPLANE bound for a concert at Oberlin College, one of the few venues which would hire him during the McCarthy era.[5] Leafing through his notebook he saw the passage, "Where are the flowers, the girls have plucked them. Where are the girls, they've all taken husbands. Where are the men, they're all in the army."[6] These lines were taken from the traditional Cossack folk song "Koloda-Duda", referenced in the Mikhail SholokhovNOVEL And Quiet Flows the Don (1934), which Seeger had read "at least a year or two before".[3]
Seeger created a song, which was subsequently published in Sing Outin 1962. With only three verses, he recorded it once in a medley onThe Rainbow QuestALBUM (Folkways LP FA 2454) released in July 1960 and forgot about it. Joe Hickerson added verses four and five, and a repeat of verse one,[3] in May 1960 in Bloomington.[7]
In 2010, the New Statesman listed it as one of the TOP 20 Political Songs".[4]
The song appeared on the compilationALBUM Pete Seeger'sGREATEST HITS (1967) released by Columbia Records as CS 9416.
Pete Seeger's recording from the Columbia album The Bitter and theSWEET (November 1962), CL 1916, produced by John H. Hammond, was also released as a Columbia Hall of Fame 45 single as 13-33088 backed with "Little Boxes".[8][9]
Ad Options ==Versions==
*The Kingston Trio recorded the song in 1961.[10][11] Believing it to be a traditional song, they claimed authorship, although upon notice from Seeger they had their name removed andCREDITED Seeger and Hickerson.[7] Seeger acknowledged their success with this song.[12] Their single, with "O Ken Karanga" as the A-side and the hit "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" the B-side, reached #21 in the 1962 Billboard Hot 100 chart and #4 on the Easy Listening chart.[13]
*Peter, Paul and Mary included the song on their eponymous debutALBUM (which spent five weeks as the #1 album in the country) in 1962.
*Marlene Dietrich performed this song in English, French and German. The song was first performed in French (as Qui peut dire où vont les fleurs?") by Marlene in 1962 at a UNICEF concert. She also recorded the song in English and in German, the latter titled "Sag' mir, wo die Blumen sind", with lyrics translated by Max Colpet. She performed the German version on aTOUR of Israel, where she was warmly received; she was the first person to break the taboo of using German publicly in Israel since WWII.[3][14]
*Dalida also recorded the song in French as "Que sont devenues les fleurs?", adapted by Guy Béart in 1962 (Les Années Barclay, vol. 5, 1962).
*Jaap Fischer recorded the song inDUTCH as "Zeg me waar de bloemen zijn" (single, B side of "Jan Soldaat",1963).
*The Searchers released their version on the album Meet The Searchers, released June 1963.
*Bobby Darin recorded the song on the GoldenFOLK Hits album on Capitol, 2007, which was released in November 1963.
*Roy Orbison recorded a version of the song which appears on the album The Connoisseur's Orbison.
*Eddy Arnold and The Needmore Creek Singers recorded the song on October 9, 1963, and released it on the  FolkSong Book album released in January 1964.
*Vera Lynn recorded the song as the eleventh cut on her 1964 album "Among My Souvenirs".
*The Brothers Four recorded the song on their 1964 LP "More Big Folk Hits", Columbia Records, CL-2213.
*The Four Seasons recorded the song on their 1964PHILIPS album Born to Wander, PHM 200 129.
*Lars Lönndahl recorded the song in 1964[15] with Swedish lyrics Inga blommor finns det mer, translated in 1962[16] byBeppe Wolgers.
*Joan Baez included the German version (Sagt Mir wo die Blumen sind) on her 1965 album Farewell Angelina.
*Johnny Rivers had a 1965 top 40 hit in the US with a folk rock version, reaching #26 on the Billboard Hot 100[3] and #9 in Canada.
*Grady Martin released an instrumental version in 1965 on his Instrumentally YoursALBUM.[17]
*Harry Belafonte has made one recording of it at a benefit concert in Stockholm, Sweden, 1966 on theALBUM BEL-1.
*Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs included the song on their 1968 album Changin' Times.
*Walter Jackson recorded a R & B version in Chicago for Okeh records in 1967.
*Jazzguitarist Wes Montgomery recorded an instrumental version in his trademarkSTYLE on the 1968 LP Road Song
*In 1969, Rufus Harley recorded a jazz instrumental version on his trademark bagpipes, but the track was never commercially released until it was included in his posthumously releasedLIMITED EDITION collection Courage - The Atlantic Recordings in 2006.
*The Landsmen released the song as a 45 single on Arvee.
*Bill Anderson recorded the song on his eponymous 1971 album.
*American R&B band Earth, Wind & Fire covered the song on the 1972 album Last Days and Time.
*Richie Havens recorded the song in 1972.
*Hannes Wader recorded a German version as the final track for his 1982 album Daß nichts bleibt wie es war.
*City recorded a German version in their 1983 album Unter der Haut.
*ARUSSIAN version of the song was created in 1998 by Oleg Nesterov, a lead singer of Megapolis, and later performed in duet with Masha Makarova (Masha I Medvedi) in a music video.[18]
*Olivia Newton-John recorded the song on her 2004 album Indigo: Women of Song.
*Country singer Dolly Parton has also recorded a rendition of the song, on her 2005 album Those Were the Days.
*Chris de Burgh has recorded a new version which is featured on his 2008 album Footsteps.[citation needed]
*The song was sung at the funeral of Harry Patch, the last British soldier of the First World War, in Wells Cathedral on August 9, 2009.
*The Folkswingers recorded an instrumental version of the song for their second album 12 String Guitar! Vol. 2.
*A Polish version on YouTube was sung by Sława Przybylska (Polish title: "Gdzie są kwiaty z tamtych lat?")
*A Czech version on YouTube of the song was also created and recorded by several popular artists, such as Judita Čeřovská,[19] Marie Rottrová or Marta Kubišová
*A Croatian folk band Zlatni Dukati played this song during the war in their homeland in 1990s under the title "Iznad polja makova" ("Above the fields of poppy").
*A Scottish pop singer and songwriter Jimmy Sommerville made a piano version of the song on his 2009 albumSuddenly Last Summer.
*Kirsten Hasberg, of Kassel Germany, recorded a parody entitled, "Sag, die Energiewende, wo ist sie geblieben?"about the GermanTRANSITION to renewable energies and "energy democracy."[dead link]
*Kovács Erzsi, Hungarian pop singer recorded a version in Hungarian ("Hova tűnt a sok virág?" on YouTube)
*Classical guitarist Sharon Isbin recorded an instrumental version in her 2009ALBUM Journey to the New World.
*BritishFOLK-Rock group The Tansads included a version on their 1995 liveALBUM Drag Down The Moon.
*German Avant-garde group Einstürzende Neubauten recorded a German version of the song for their 2014 albumLament.
*Lara Veronin, Russian-Taiwanese-American singer recorded a version for the 2012 Taiwanese drama Alice in Wonder City.
*The Armistice Pals recorded a version in 2014 that was released as a commemoration of the100TH ANNIVERSARYof World War One and as a tribute to Pete Seeger, who had died earlier that year. The recording featured over 40 notable folk artists and a 'Pals Chorus' of over 100 other singer-songwriters, singers, groups and members of UK folk clubs who attended the recording sessions. The voice of Pete Seeger is heard in the recording along with that of his stepsister Peggy Seeger.
Version 	Title 	Artist
Catalan 	Què se n'ha fet d'aquelles flors? 	Roslyn Smith, La Marta (Club Super3)
Croatian 	Kamo je cvijeće otišlo? 	Monia Verardi
CZECH 	Řekni, kde ty kytky jsou 	Judita Čeřovská
Dutch 	Zeg me waar de bloemen zijn 	Jaap Fischer
English 	Where have all the flowers gone? 	Pete Seeger, The Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, The TansadsThe Armistice Pals
Esperanto 	Ĉiuj floroj estas for 	Duo Espera
Estonian 	Kuhu küll kõik lilled jäid onYouTube 	Lindpriid
Finnish 	Minne kukat kadonneet 	Kukonpojat
French 	Qui peut dire où vont les fleurs? 	Eva
[disambiguation needed], Marlene Dietrich, Dalida
German 	Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind 	Marlene Dietrich, Hannes Wader, Juliane Werding, Nana Mouskouri, Joan Baez,Lolita (Austrian singer), Hildegard Knef, Einstürzende Neubauten
Hebrew 	איפה הפרחים כולם Eifo Haprachim Kulam 	שלישיית גשר הירקון (Gesher Hayarkon Trio)
Hungarian 	Hova tűnt a sok virág? onYouTube 	Gerendás Péter
Irish 	Cá bhfuil siad uainn, scoth na mbláth? 	Feargal Ó Béarra
ITALIAN 	Dove andranno i nostri fiori?on YouTube 	Patty Pravo
JAPANESE 	花はどこへ行った? Hana wa doko e itta? on YouTube 	Kiyoshiro Imawano
POLISH 	Gdzie są kwiaty z tamtych lat? 	Sława Przybylska
Portuguese	Para onde foram todas as flores 	Jarmila FerreiraMARTINS
Romanian 	Unde au dispărut toate florile 	Alexandru Constantinescu
RUSSIAN 	Где цветы, дай мне ответ? Gde cvety, day mne otvet?	Oleg Nesterov, Masha Makarova
RUSSIAN 	Ты скажи мне, где цветы onYouTube 	Zhanna Bichevskaya
Slovenian 	Kam so šle vse rožice onYouTube 	Tomaž Domicelj
Spanish 	¿Dónde están las flores? 	Rolando Alarcón
Swedish 	Inga blommor finns det mer 	Lars Lönndahl
Turkish 	Söyle Çiçekler nerde? 	Oğuz Tarihmen
Ukrainian 	Де всі квіти, розкажи De vsi kvity, rozkazhy 	Maria Burmaka
Ukrainian 	Квіти де? Kvity De? onYouTube 	Yana Zavarzina
==Grammy Hall of Fame==
Pete Seeger's recording of his composition wasINDUCTED into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least 25 years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance."
Pete Seeger: Grammy Hall of Fame Awards[20]	Pete Seeger: Grammy Hall of Fame Awards[20]	Pete Seeger: Grammy Hall of Fame Awards[20]	Pete Seeger: Grammy Hall of Fame Awards[20]	Pete Seeger: Grammy Hall of Fame Awards[20]	Pete Seeger: Grammy Hall of Fame Awards[20]
Year recorded 	Title 	Genre 	Label 	Year inducted 	
1964 	"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" 	Folk (single) 	Columbia 	2002 	
Category:1962 singles