Those Were The Days

Album

Single

Label

Atlantic Records

Genre

Stage & Screen

Composer(s)

Lee Adams;Charles Strouse

Entered Chart

Dec 11, 1971

Peak Date

Jan 29, 1972

Released

Unknown

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Atlantic 2847

B-Side

(long version)

This was written by the Broadway songwriters Charles Strouse and Lee Adams for the TV show All In The Family, which opened with Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor) and his wife Edith (Jean Stapleton) singing it around a piano. Created by Norman Lear, the show ran on CBS from 1971-1980; for the last season, an instrumental version was used to open the show. The song is an expression of the Archie Bunker character on All In The Family. Set in his ways and bigoted, he reminisces on the "good old days" when there was good music (Glenn Miller), reliable cars, and no gay people ("girls were girls and men were men"). Throughout the series, Archie struggles with changing times and often butts heads with his progressive-minded daughter and her husband (played by Rob Reiner). Bunker was a nuanced character, good-hearted but also irredeemable. The show was so transgressive that the first six episodes opened with a warning that it "seeks to throw a humorous spotlight on our frailties, prejudices and concerns. By making them a source of laughter, we hope to show - in a mature fashion - just how absurd they are." A longer set of lyrics was written for this, with lines like, "Hair was short and skirts were long." You can see them in the lyrics section. This harkens back to a time when TV theme songs could take their sweet time. In later years, sitcoms tended to cut back on theme songs or eliminate them completely (like Seinfeld) to create more show content, but like many shows of its time, the first 45 seconds of All In The Family was devoted to the opening theme. There is an orchestral funky disco arrangement (orchestra leader Al Capps) sung by Sammy Davis Jr. on an album with a compilation of hits by different artists from 1977. Sammy was a guest on a famous episode of All In The Family where he kisses Archie on the cheek while a reporter takes a photo. >> Report this ad Carroll O' Connor and Jean Stapleton, who played Archie and Edith, re-recorded this for the second season to make some of the lyrics more clear. The line most people couldn't understand was, "Gee our old LaSalle ran great." A LaSalle was a type of car made by General Motors from 1927-1940. The song's co-writer, Charles Strouse, sometimes performed this at concerts, even imitating Edith's screech. >> This was used throughout an episode of The Simpsons titled "Lisa's Sax," performed by Marge and Homer Simpson, with updated lyrics and the opening scenes parodying that of the opening sequence of All In The Family. >> Woody Harrelson and Marisa Tomei sang this on May 22, 2019 when they played Archie and Edith in a live performance of All in the Family on ABC. The Jeffersons, another iconic Norman Lear sitcom with a famous theme song, was also revived that night with Jamie Foxx as George Jefferson. On December 18, 2019, ABC repeated the event, this time pairing All In The Family with Good Times, another Norman Lear sitcom. As the episodes aired, congress was voting to impeach President Donald Trump; ABC briefly broke into Good Times with the news, but didn't preempt the shows.

Short Version (Aired at beginning of episodes)
Boy the way Glen Miller played,
Songs that made the hit parade,
Guys like us we had it made,
Those were the days,
And you know where you were then,
Girls were girls and men were men,
Mister we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again,
Didn't need no welfare states
Everybody pulled his weight,
Gee our old Lasalle ran great,
Those were the days

Full Version
Boy, the way Glen Miller played.
Songs that made the Hit Parade.
Guys like us, we had it made.
Those were the days
Didn't need no welfare state.
Everybody pulled his weight
Gee, our old LaSalle ran great.
Those were the days
And you knew where you were then
Girls were girls and men were men.
Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.
People seemed to be content.
Fifty dollars paid the rent.
Freaks were in a circus tent.
Those were the days
Take a little Sunday spin,
Go to watch the Dodgers win.
Have yourself a dandy day
That cost you under a fin.
Hair was short and skirts were long.
Kate Smith really sold a song.
I don't know just what went wrong
Those Were the Days