Song Of The Day 2/9/2015: Mary Hopkin - "Tro, Tro, Tro"

Quarterly Covers Report: “Tro, Tro, Tro” is Mary Hopkin’s Welsh-language cover of Pete Seeger’s “Turn! Turn! Turn!,” which in turn (heh) was a cover of a jam written by King Solomon before he sold the hell out. “Turn! Turn! Turn!” first appeared in the book of Ecclesiastes, which also contains the original versions of “Material Girl,” “Pass the Dutchie” and a few select Air Supply songs. Plus, Ecclesiastes chapter 5 totally rips off Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.” You’d think Solomon would be happy with his gold, his reef and his 700 +/- wives, but nope, he had to nick off TP.

Mary Hopkin was one of the roster acts on Apple Records, which we covered a couple of weeks ago. Her hit was the actually quite wonderful “Those Were the Days,” which documented the dragged-out aging process of patrons of an especially personable tavern where hoisting was encouraged and songs were sung well before the concept of self-awareness kicked in.

Pete Seeger was a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church, which gave him just enough clout to quote scripture without infuriating everyone else in Greenwich Village.