we’d live the life we choose—we’d fight and never lose (11. 871)

Adapted from the 1920s standard by Boris Ivanovich Fomin Дорогой длинною (By the Long Road) by playwright, professor and song-writer Gene Raskin, the rendition from Welsh performer Mar Hopkins topped the charts on this day in 1968. A number-one hit in the UK and Canada, Hopkin’s debut single was produced by Paul McCartney and in the Billboard Hot 100 was only second to the Beatles’ own Hey Jude. Husband and wife duo, Gene and Francesca played folk music at several venues in New York and toured internationally, including in their rotation, often the encore, Raskin’s version, which McCartney heard on one occasion at London’s Blue Angel club. After pitching the song to other groups including the Moody Blues, McCartney finally found a muse in Hopkins. The nostalgic number with the traditional instrumentation of balalaika, cimbalom and a choir of children (keeping with the original arrangement) also was recorded with German, Spanish and Italian version. At the height of the “Those Were the Days” popularity, an unauthorised jingle was put out, a New York advertising firm releasing, “The perfect dish, Rokeach Gefilte Fish,” which Raskin successfully sued to take off the air.