It Was a Very Good Year is a song composed by Ervin Drake in 1961 and subsequently made famous by Frank Sinatra. His version won the Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Male in 1966. Gordon Jenkins was awarded Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) for the Sinatra version. It can be found on the Frank Sinatra album September of My Years. Ervin Drake (born April 3, 1919 in New York City) is an American songwriter. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... Francis Albert Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and Academy Award-winning actor who many consider to be one of the finest male popular song vocalists of all time. ... Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (originally called the Gramophone Awards, commonly abbreviated as the Grammys or GRAMMYs ), presented by the Recording Academy known as NARAS, (an association of Americans professionally involved in the recorded music industry) for outstanding achievements in the recording industry, is one of four major music awards... The Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Male was awarded from 1959 to 1968. ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... Gordon Jenkins Gordon Hill Jenkins (12 May 1910-1 May 1984) was an American arranger who was an influential figure in popular music in the 1940s and 1950s, renowned for his lush string arrangements. ... The Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) has been awarded since 1963. ... September of My Years is an album by Frank Sinatra, released in 1965, that is often considered one of his best. ...

Lyrics

When I was seventeen

It was a very good year

It was a very good year for small town girls

And soft summer nights

We'd hide from the lights

On the village green

When I was seventeen

When I was twenty-one

It was a very good year

It was a very good year for city girls

Who lived up the stair

With all that perfumed hair

And it came undone

When I was twenty-one

When I was thirty-five

It was a very good year

It was a very good year for blue-blooded girls

Of independent means

Wed ride in limousines

Their chauffeurs would drive

When I was thirty-five

But now the days grow short

Im in the autumn of the year

And now I think of my life as vintage wine

from fine old kegs

from the brim to the dregs

And it poured sweet and clear

It was a very good year

It was a mess of good years

Cover versions

• This song was introduced by the Kingston Trio on their album Going Places.
• This song was recorded on 45 rpm single on Pye record in 1963, by Lonnie Donegan
• The Turtles recorded a version on their debut album, It Ain't Me Babe. This is allegedly the version that influenced Frank Sinatra to want to record his version.
• William Shatner did a spoken-word cover of this song interspersed with lines from Hamlet on his 1968 album The Transformed Man.
• Lou Rawls covered this song in 1968, which was produced by David Axelrod. Rawls performed this song just before his death on 2006's "An Evening of Stars" telethon, backed by the Rickey Minor Band.
• British pop star Robbie Williams recorded a version for his album Swing When You're Winning, in duet with Sinatra's original vocals.
• In a 1993 episode of The Simpsons, Homer sings a parody of this song entitled "It Was A Very Good Beer," recounting the first beer he ever purchased (with a fake I.D.)
• The Flaming Lips covered this song in 1993 on the compilation Chairman of the Board (Interpretations of Songs Made Famous by Frank Sinatra)
• The Reverend Horton Heat covered the song in 2000 and released it as a single to promote the album Spend a Night in the Box.
• It has been adapted in French by Robert Charlebois on his 2001 album Doux Sauvage.
• Ray Charles covered the song (as a duet with Willie Nelson) on his 2004 album Genius Loves Company.
• In 2005, They Might Be Giants made a parody of this song on their first ever podcast.
• Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In did a skit where Dan Rowan changes army uniforms from WWII, Korea, and then Vietnam as the song plays in the background.
• In the first episode of the second season of the acclaimed HBO drama, The Sopranos, the song is played in the beginning while showing how things have been going since the last season ended.