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Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" is a folk song written by American singer-songwriter Pete Seeger in 1955. Inspired lyrically by the traditional Cossack folk song "Koloda-Duda", Seeger borrowed an Irish melody for the music,[1] and published the first three verses in Sing Out! magazine.[2] Additional verses were added in May 1960 by Joe Hickerson, who turned it into a circular song.[3] Its rhetorical "where?" and meditation on death place the song in the ubi sunt tradition.[4] In 2010, the New Statesman listed it as one of the "Top 20 Political Songs".[5]

For the film, see Where Have All the Flowers Gone? (film).

"Where Have All The Flowers Gone?"

English

March 14, 1955 (1955-03-14)

3:04

Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger and Joe Hickerson

The 1964 release of the song as a Columbia Records Hall of Fame series 45 single, 13–33088, by Pete Seeger was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002 in the Folk category.

Composition[edit]

Seeger found inspiration for the song in October 1955 while he was on a plane bound for a concert at Oberlin College, one of the few venues which would hire him during the McCarthy era.[6] 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."[7] These lines were taken from the traditional Cossack folk-song "Koloda-Duda" (Ukrainian: Колода-дуда), referenced in the Mikhail Sholokhov novel And Quiet Flows the Don (1934), which Seeger had read "at least a year or two before". In a 2013 interview, Seeger explained that he borrowed the melody from an Irish lumberjack song with the words 'Johnson says he'll load more hay.' He simply slowed the tune and incorporated the lines into it.[8][9]


Seeger created a song which was published in Sing Out in 1962. He recorded a version with three verses on The Rainbow Quest album (Folkways LP FA 2454) released in July 1960. Later, Joe Hickerson added two more verses with a recapitulation of the first[8] in May 1960 in Bloomington, Indiana.[10]


The song appeared on the compilation album Pete Seeger's Greatest Hits (1967) released by Columbia Records as CS 9416.


Pete Seeger's recording from the Columbia album The Bitter and the Sweet (November 1962), CL 1916, produced by John H. Hammond was also released as a Columbia Hall of Fame 45 single as 13-33088 backed by "Little Boxes" in August, 1965.[11][12]

recorded the song in 1961.[13][14] Believing it to be a traditional song, they claimed authorship, although upon notice from Seeger they had their name removed and credited Seeger and Hickerson.[10] Seeger acknowledged their success with this song.[15] Their single, with "O Ken Karanga" as the A-side and the hit "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" the B-side, reached No. 21 in the 1962 Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 4 on the Easy Listening chart.[16]

The Kingston Trio

The Landsmen released the song in 1961 as a 45 rpm single on Arvee.

[17]

included the song on their eponymous debut album (which spent five weeks as the No. 1 album in the United States) in 1962.

Peter, Paul and Mary

performed the song in English, French, and German. The song was first performed in French (as "Qui peut dire où vont les fleurs?") by Dietrich 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 a tour of Israel, where she was warmly received; she was the first performer to break the taboo of publicly using the German language in Israel since WWII.[8][18] Her version peaked No. 20 in German charts.[19]

Marlene Dietrich

(1933−1987), an Italian-French singer, also recorded the song in French as "Que sont devenues les fleurs?", adapted by Guy Béart in 1962 (Les Années Barclay, vol. 5, 1962).

Dalida

recorded an instrumental version of the song for their second album 12 String Guitar! Vol. 2 (1963).

The Folkswingers

recorded the song in Dutch as "Zeg me waar de bloemen zijn" (single, B side of "Jan Soldaat", 1963).

Jaap Fischer

(1937−2002) recorded the song in Dutch "Waar zijn al die bloemen toch?", released 1963.

Conny van den Bos

released their version on the album Meet The Searchers, released in June 1963.

The Searchers

featuring Dusty Springfield released a version in German in 1963.

The Springfields

(1936−1973) recorded the song on the Golden Folk Hits album on Capitol, 2007, which was released in November 1963.

Bobby Darin

and The Needmore Creek Singers recorded the song on October 9, 1963, and released it on the Folk Song Book album released in January 1964.

Eddy Arnold

(1928−2014), a Hungarian pop singer, recorded a version in Hungarian in 1964.[20]

Erzsi Kovács

(1932−2018), an Estonian concert singer, recorded a version in Estonian in 1964, with the title "Kuhu küll kõik lilled jäid?"[21]

Heli Lääts

(1917−2020) recorded the song as the eleventh cut on her 1964 album "Among My Souvenirs".

Vera Lynn

recorded the song on their 1964 LP "More Big Folk Hits", Columbia Records, CL-2213.

The Brothers Four

recorded the song on their 1964 Philips album Born to Wander, PHM 200 129.

The Four Seasons

recorded the song in 1964[22] with Swedish lyrics Inga blommor finns det mer, translated in 1962[23] by Beppe Wolgers.

Lars Lönndahl

List of anti-war songs

; Blood, Peter (1993). Where have all the flowers gone : a singer's stories, songs, seeds, robberies (Biography). Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: Sing Out!. pp. 166–169. ISBN 978-1-881322-01-6. OCLC 28150656.

Seeger, Pete