"The Carnival Is Over" is a Russian folk song from circa 1883, adapted with English-language lyrics, written by Tom Springfield, for the Australian folk pop group The Seekers in 1965. The song became The Seekers' signature recording, and the band have customarily closed their concerts with it ever since its success in late-1965. At its 1965 sales peak, The Seekers' single was selling 93,000 copies per day in the UK and is No.30 in the chart of the biggest-selling singles of all time in the United Kingdom, with sales of at least 1.41 million copies in the UK alone. The track spent three weeks at No.1 in the UK Singles Chart in November and December 1965.
The song also topped the Australian charts (for six weeks, from 4 December 1965), and reached No.1 in the Irish Charts for two weeks.
The original lyrics of the song, written in 1883 by the poet and Povolzhye region ethnographerDmitry Sadovnikov to a folk melody, told about an episode of the 1670-1671 Russian Peasant Uprising in which Stepan Razin allegedly killed his captive, a beautiful Persian Princess, by throwing her into the water from his boat. According to the Dutch traveller Jean Jansen Struys (1630—1694), the murder was meant as a sacrifice with which Razin hoped to appease the much loved and feared Volga River. Sadovnikov in his text adds another motive: Razin's gesture is addressed to his disgruntled jealous comrades who accuse him of "mellowing down" after just one night spent with a woman.
The lyrics of the song were dramatized in the first Russian narrative film, Stenka Razin directed by Vladimir Romashkov in 1908. The song also gave the title to the famous 1938 Soviet musical comedy Volga-Volga. It was performed by the Osipov State Russian Folk Orchestra (balalaikas and domras) during their 1967 tour of Australia. The tune is also used in a Dutch hymn "Vol Verwachting Blijf Ik Uitzien", and a Dutch nursery rhyme "Aan de Oever van de Rotte".
By Unknown author - Public Domain, Link. Razin throws his Persian lover overboard. A 1681 illustration to Jean Struys' book
The main tune of The Carnival is Over is adapted from a Russian song about the Cossack atamanStenka Razin which became popular in Russia in the 1890s. The original poem of "Stenka Razin" was written in 1883 by the poet and Povolzhye region ethnographerDmitry Sadovnikov. The text of this poem, with minor changes, was set to the music of a popular Russian folk melody by an unknown author.
https://youtu.be/44wzqWQxHpQ
It told about an episode of the 1670–1671 Russian Peasant Uprising in which Razin allegedly killed his captive, a beautiful Persian Princess whom he had just married. Razin throws the Princess into the Volga river from his boat, in a gesture addressed to his disgruntled jealous comrades who accuse him of "mellowing down" after just one night spent with a woman.
Score:
The song gave the title to the famous 1938 Soviet musical comedy Volga-Volga. It was performed by the Osipov State Russian Folk Orchestra (balalaikas and domras) during their 1967 tour of Australia. It is played to symbolic effect by the band in a cafe in the 1988 film The Unbearable Lightness of Being after Soviet tanks have crushed the Prague Spring.
The American folk singer Pete Seeger wrote an English language version of Stenka Razin called River of My Country in the 1950s. This song was included in his album Love Songs for Friends and Foes (1956). The lyrics were not a translation of the Russian song, but were newly composed by Seeger himself, while maintaining the motif of the river.
Tom Springfield was introduced to Stenka Razin at the Joint Services School for Linguists during his National Service (1952-54). The school was known as “the Russian course”, and its purpose was to train conscripts in intelligence techniques. Springfield joined the school’s Russian choir, and they sang Stenka Razin together (in Russian) as part of the course. His decision to base his third song for The Seekers on the haunting Russian melody proved to be "a gold mine".
Springfield adapted the folk song melody in two significant ways. He altered the time signature from 3/4 to 4/4, and he added a chorus, allowing him to expand the Song structure to AABABA from the simple AAA structure of the original.
https://youtu.be/ZNCiBZH_52E
Early in 1965, Springfield travelled to Brazil, where he witnessed the Carnival in Rio. This provided the basis for his new lyrics, including the Commedia del'arte characters Pierrot and Columbine, who feature in the chorus. The "Carnival" depicts "the joys of love" experienced by Pierrot and Columbine - when they have to part, the carnival is over.
"The Carnival Is Over (Goodbye True Lover)" / "Going Back West" is a double A-side single by German band Boney M released in 1982. It replaced a cancelled third single release of a re-recording of the song "Jimmy" from the group's fifth studio album Boonoonoonoos. "The Carnival Is Over" was the first single release after dancer Bobby Farrell's departure and introduced new male singer Reggie Tsiboe in the line-up. Despite reaching No.11 in the Swiss charts, the single was widely considered Boney M.'s first flop. After a string of 16 consecutive Top 20 singles in Germany, the single only climbed to No.41 after a second pressing with a remix of "Going Back West" as the main A-side was sent out. "Going Back West", however, would become a hit single in South Africa where the group's popularity remained high in the early 1980s. Boney M. would use the double A-side format in this period, typically with the A1 being the song intended for radio and A2 being more squarely aimed at discos. The sides would usually be switched on the accompanying 12-inch single.
The Carnival Is Over (Goodbye True Lover)
Boney M.'s version of the Seekers' song was done in a low-key ballad arrangement and featured Liz Mitchell on lead vocal. An original verse by producer Frank Farian and lyricist Catherine Courage was added to introduce Reggie Tsiboe as a vocalist. In the early mix of the single, Liz Mitchell sings the answer-back line "Kiss me again" as opposed to the final mix where she sings "Our love is true". Edit were released in the UK and Japan where a part of the intro had been cut out. "The Carnival Is Over" was never included in any studio album by Boney M. and didn't appear on a compilation until 2000 when it was included on 25 Jaar Na Daddy Cool in the Netherlands. The single edit was added as a bonus track to the remastered 2007 edition of Ten Thousand Lightyears. An even shorter version, without Reggie Tsiboe's interpolated verse, was released in Japan on Their Most Beautiful Ballads (2001)
Going Back West
The first song with new member Reggie Tsiboe on lead vocals was an uptempo cover version of a Jimmy Cliff track. An early mix had only vocal group La Mama (Cathy Bartney, Patricia Shockley, Madeleine Davis) on backing vocals. Several later mixes were released with Liz Mitchell's vocals added to the backing vocals and also producer Frank Farian singing a couple of lines. The 12-inch version was coupled with an edit of the track "Silly Confusion" from Boonoonoonoos.
https://youtu.be/HaRJugFSB7s
Boney M Releases
7-inch singles
"The Carnival Is Over (Goodbye True Lover)" – 4:49 / "Going Back West" (Early mix) – 4:05 (Hansa 104 475–100, Germany)
"Going Back West" (Remix) – 4:15 / "The Carnival Is Over" – 4:49 (Hansa 104 475–100, Germany)
"The Carnival Is Over (Goodbye True Lover)" (UK edit) – 4:00 / "Going Back West" (Remix) – 4:15 (Atlantic A 9973, UK)
"Going Back West" (Remix) – 4:15 / "The Carnival Is Over" (Japan edit) – 4:20 (Atlantic P-1693, Japan)
12-inch singles
A1 "Going Back West" – 5:00 / A2 "Silly Confusion" (Farian, Kawohl, Björklund, Baierl, Courage) – 4:05 / B "The Carnival Is Over" – 4:52 (Hansa 600 633–213, Germany)
Nick Cave version
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds covered the Seekers' version of "The Carnival is Over" on their 1986 album "Kicking Against The Pricks". This was the third album released by the Australian rock band. Remarking on the song selection on the Album, Cave said:
Some songs had just kind of haunted my childhood, like "The Carnival is Over", which I always loved.
https://youtu.be/5YF5SRqFCsM
Mary Duff And Daniel O'Donnell The carnival is over
https://youtu.be/HaV8tS1kyEQ
Richard Clayderman - The Carnival Is Over
https://youtu.be/Fgls6HW7Wfg
Instrumental cover by Dave Monk
https://youtu.be/ZjbKC7WmXiI
Mirusia - The Carnival Is Over
https://youtu.be/Y2h2zGKWa6E
Foster and Allen - The Carnival Is Over
https://youtu.be/RRvfsSoDHWY
Trumpet Troubadours - The Carnival Is Over
https://youtu.be/w0B7VHVU3MQ
The Carnvial Is Over by The Seekers and Andre Rieu
https://youtu.be/3jWLOw9GX0I
The Story of 'The Carnival Is Over' by The Seekers - 1965-2019
https://youtu.be/iUAHhlTGY-U
Tom Springfield adapted the melody from the Russian folk song, and also wrote the lyrics, after a trip to Brazil, where he witnessed the Carnival in Rio.
The melody is played repeatedly in an early episode of TV series "The Twilight Zone" - Season 1 Episode 3, entitled "Mr. Denton On Doomsday", first aired in 1959.
“The Carnival Is Over” is a Russian folk song from circa 1883, adapted with English-language lyrics, written by Tom Springfield, for the Australian folk pop group The Seekers in 1965. The song became The Seekers’ signature recording, and the band have customarily closed their concerts with it ever since its success in late-1965. At its 1965 sales peak, The Seekers’ single was selling 93,000 copies per day in the UK and is No.30 in the chart of the biggest-selling singles of all time in the United Kingdom, with sales of at least 1.41 million copies in the UK alone. The track spent three weeks at No.1 in the UK Singles Chart in November and December 1965.
The song also topped the Australian charts (for six weeks, from 4 December 1965), and reached No.1 in the Irish Charts for two weeks.
The original lyrics of the song, written in 1883 by the poet and Povolzhye region ethnographerDmitry Sadovnikov to a folk melody, told about an episode of the 1670-1671 Russian Peasant Uprising in which Stepan Razin allegedly killed his captive, a beautiful Persian Princess, by throwing her into the water from his boat. According to the Dutch traveller Jean Jansen Struys (1630—1694), the murder was meant as a sacrifice with which Razin hoped to appease the much loved and feared Volga River. Sadovnikov in his text adds another motive: Razin’s gesture is addressed to his disgruntled jealous comrades who accuse him of “mellowing down” after just one night spent with a woman.
The lyrics of the song were dramatized in the first Russian narrative film, Stenka Razin directed by Vladimir Romashkov in 1908. The song also gave the title to the famous 1938 Soviet musical comedy Volga-Volga. It was performed by the Osipov State Russian Folk Orchestra (balalaikas and domras) during their 1967 tour of Australia. The tune is also used in a Dutch hymn “Vol Verwachting Blijf Ik Uitzien”, and a Dutch nursery rhyme “Aan de Oever van de Rotte”.
The Seekers – A World of our Own (HQ Stereo, 1965/'68)
Stenka Razin
By Unknown author – Public Domain, Link. Razin throws his Persian lover overboard. A 1681 illustration to Jean Struys’ book
The main tune of The Carnival is Over is adapted from a Russian song about the Cossack atamanStenka Razin which became popular in Russia in the 1890s. The original poem of “Stenka Razin” was written in 1883 by the poet and Povolzhye region ethnographerDmitry Sadovnikov. The text of this poem, with minor changes, was set to the music of a popular Russian folk melody by an unknown author.
Stenka Razin (Volga Volga ) Russian Red Army Choir
It told about an episode of the 1670–1671 Russian Peasant Uprising in which Razin allegedly killed his captive, a beautiful Persian Princess whom he had just married. Razin throws the Princess into the Volga river from his boat, in a gesture addressed to his disgruntled jealous comrades who accuse him of “mellowing down” after just one night spent with a woman.
Score:
The song gave the title to the famous 1938 Soviet musical comedy Volga-Volga. It was performed by the Osipov State Russian Folk Orchestra (balalaikas and domras) during their 1967 tour of Australia. It is played to symbolic effect by the band in a cafe in the 1988 film The Unbearable Lightness of Being after Soviet tanks have crushed the Prague Spring.
The American folk singer Pete Seeger wrote an English language version of Stenka Razin called River of My Country in the 1950s. This song was included in his album Love Songs for Friends and Foes (1956). The lyrics were not a translation of the Russian song, but were newly composed by Seeger himself, while maintaining the motif of the river.
Tom Springfield was introduced to Stenka Razin at the Joint Services School for Linguists during his National Service (1952-54). The school was known as “the Russian course”, and its purpose was to train conscripts in intelligence techniques. Springfield joined the school’s Russian choir, and they sang Stenka Razin together (in Russian) as part of the course. His decision to base his third song for The Seekers on the haunting Russian melody proved to be “a gold mine”.
Springfield adapted the folk song melody in two significant ways. He altered the time signature from 3/4 to 4/4, and he added a chorus, allowing him to expand the Song structure to AABABA from the simple AAA structure of the original.
The Seekers-Paralympics 2000 Closing Ceremony
Early in 1965, Springfield travelled to Brazil, where he witnessed the Carnival in Rio. This provided the basis for his new lyrics, including the Commedia del’arte characters Pierrot and Columbine, who feature in the chorus. The “Carnival” depicts “the joys of love” experienced by Pierrot and Columbine – when they have to part, the carnival is over.
“The Carnival Is Over (Goodbye True Lover)” / “Going Back West” is a double A-side single by German band Boney M released in 1982. It replaced a cancelled third single release of a re-recording of the song “Jimmy” from the group’s fifth studio album Boonoonoonoos. “The Carnival Is Over” was the first single release after dancer Bobby Farrell‘s departure and introduced new male singer Reggie Tsiboe in the line-up. Despite reaching No.11 in the Swiss charts, the single was widely considered Boney M.’s first flop. After a string of 16 consecutive Top 20 singles in Germany, the single only climbed to No.41 after a second pressing with a remix of “Going Back West” as the main A-side was sent out. “Going Back West”, however, would become a hit single in South Africa where the group’s popularity remained high in the early 1980s. Boney M. would use the double A-side format in this period, typically with the A1 being the song intended for radio and A2 being more squarely aimed at discos. The sides would usually be switched on the accompanying 12-inch single.
The Carnival Is Over (Goodbye True Lover)
Boney M.’s version of the Seekers‘ song was done in a low-key ballad arrangement and featured Liz Mitchell on lead vocal. An original verse by producer Frank Farian and lyricist Catherine Courage was added to introduce Reggie Tsiboe as a vocalist. In the early mix of the single, Liz Mitchell sings the answer-back line “Kiss me again” as opposed to the final mix where she sings “Our love is true”. Edit were released in the UK and Japan where a part of the intro had been cut out. “The Carnival Is Over” was never included in any studio album by Boney M. and didn’t appear on a compilation until 2000 when it was included on 25 Jaar Na Daddy Cool in the Netherlands. The single edit was added as a bonus track to the remastered 2007 edition of Ten Thousand Lightyears. An even shorter version, without Reggie Tsiboe’s interpolated verse, was released in Japan on Their Most Beautiful Ballads (2001)
Going Back West
The first song with new member Reggie Tsiboe on lead vocals was an uptempo cover version of a Jimmy Cliff track. An early mix had only vocal group La Mama (Cathy Bartney, Patricia Shockley, Madeleine Davis) on backing vocals. Several later mixes were released with Liz Mitchell’s vocals added to the backing vocals and also producer Frank Farian singing a couple of lines. The 12-inch version was coupled with an edit of the track “Silly Confusion” from Boonoonoonoos.
Boney M. – The Carnival Is Over (Official Video)
Boney M Releases
7-inch singles
“The Carnival Is Over (Goodbye True Lover)” – 4:49 / “Going Back West” (Early mix) – 4:05 (Hansa 104 475–100, Germany)
“Going Back West” (Remix) – 4:15 / “The Carnival Is Over” – 4:49 (Hansa 104 475–100, Germany)
“The Carnival Is Over (Goodbye True Lover)” (UK edit) – 4:00 / “Going Back West” (Remix) – 4:15 (Atlantic A 9973, UK)
“Going Back West” (Remix) – 4:15 / “The Carnival Is Over” (Japan edit) – 4:20 (Atlantic P-1693, Japan)
12-inch singles
A1 “Going Back West” – 5:00 / A2 “Silly Confusion” (Farian, Kawohl, Björklund, Baierl, Courage) – 4:05 / B “The Carnival Is Over” – 4:52 (Hansa 600 633–213, Germany)
Nick Cave version
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds covered the Seekers’ version of “The Carnival is Over” on their 1986 album “Kicking Against The Pricks“. This was the third album released by the Australian rock band. Remarking on the song selection on the Album, Cave said:
Some songs had just kind of haunted my childhood, like “The Carnival is Over“, which I always loved.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – The carnival is over
Mary Duff And Daniel O’Donnell The carnival is over
Mary Duff And Daniel O'Donnell The carnival is over
Richard Clayderman – The Carnival Is Over
Richard Clayderman – The Carnival Is Over
Instrumental cover by Dave Monk
The carnival is over – The Seekers – instrumental cover by Dave Monk
Mirusia – The Carnival Is Over
The Carnival Is Over
Foster and Allen – The Carnival Is Over
The Carnival Is Over
Trumpet Troubadours – The Carnival Is Over
The Carnival Is Over
The Carnvial Is Over by The Seekers and Andre Rieu
The Carnvial Is Over by The Seekers
The Story of ‘The Carnival Is Over’ by The Seekers – 1965-2019
The Story of 'The Carnival Is Over' by The Seekers – 1965-2019
Tom Springfield adapted the melody from the Russian folk song, and also wrote the lyrics, after a trip to Brazil, where he witnessed the Carnival in Rio.
The melody is played repeatedly in an early episode of TV series “The Twilight Zone” – Season 1 Episode 3, entitled “Mr. Denton On Doomsday”, first aired in 1959.
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