“Turn, Turn, Turn” by The Byrds

The Byrds took "Turn, Turn, Turn", Pete Seeger's setting of scripture, and made it an international hit late in 1965, with Terry Melcher producing. Nearly every word is lifted from Ecclesiastes, chapter 3, verses one through eight; Seeger supplied only the title refrain and the last two lines. In the hands of an American folk rock band, that old meditation on seasons and endings stopped sounding like a hymn and started sounding like the moment.

America bit fast. The record first showed up on the national chart at 80 on October 23, 1965, and by December 4 it sat at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. It went to 3 in Canada and 26 in Britain.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.