Sag mir wo die Blumen sind The Voice of Germany

"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" is a modern folk-style song. Inspired lyrically by the traditional Cossack folk song "Koloda-Duda", Pete Seeger borrowed an Irish melody[1] and the first three verses in 1955 and published it in Sing Out! magazine.[2] Additional verses were added in May 1960 by Joe Hickerson, who turned it into a circular song.[3] Its rhetorical "where?" and meditation on death place the song in the ubi sunt tradition.[4] In 2010, the New Statesman listed it as one of the "Top 20 Political Songs".[5]

The 1964 release of the song as a Columbia Records Hall of Fame series 45 single, 13-33088, by Pete Seeger was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002 in the Folk category.

Composition[edit]

Seeger found inspiration for the song in October 1955 while he was on a plane bound for a concert at Oberlin College, one of the few venues which would hire him during the McCarthy era.[6] Leafing through his notebook he saw the passage, "Where are the flowers, the girls have plucked them. Where are the girls, they've all taken husbands. Where are the men, they're all in the army."[7] These lines were taken from the traditional Cossack folk-song "Koloda-Duda" (Ukrainian: Колода-дуда), referenced in the Mikhail Sholokhov novel And Quiet Flows the Don (1934), which Seeger had read "at least a year or two before". In a 2013 interview, Seeger explained that he borrowed the melody from an Irish lumberjack song with the words 'Johnson says he'll load more hay.' He simply slowed the tune and incorporated the lines into it.[8][9]

Seeger created a song which was subsequently published in Sing Out in 1962. He recorded a version with three verses on The Rainbow Quest album (Folkways LP FA 2454) released in July 1960. Later, Joe Hickerson added two more verses with a recapitulation of the first[8] in May 1960 in Bloomington, Indiana.[10]

In 2010, the New Statesman listed it as one of the "Top 20 Political Songs".[5]

The song appeared on the compilation album Pete Seeger's Greatest Hits (1967) released by Columbia Records as CS 9416.

Pete Seeger's recording from the Columbia album The Bitter and the Sweet (November 1962), CL 1916, produced by John H. Hammond was also released as a Columbia Hall of Fame 45 single as 13-33088 backed by "Little Boxes" in August, 1965.[11][12]

Versions[edit]

1961−1964[edit]

• The Kingston Trio recorded the song in 1961.[13][14] Believing it to be a traditional song, they claimed authorship, although upon notice from Seeger they had their name removed and credited Seeger and Hickerson.[10] Seeger acknowledged their success with this song.[15] Their single, with "O Ken Karanga" as the A-side and the hit "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" the B-side, reached No. 21 in the 1962 Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 4 on the Easy Listening chart.[16]
• The Landsmen released the song in 1961 as a 45 rpm single on Arvee.[17]
• Peter, Paul and Mary included the song on their eponymous debut album (which spent five weeks as the No. 1 album in the United States) in 1962.
• Marlene Dietrich performed the song in English, French, and German. The song was first performed in French (as "Qui peut dire où vont les fleurs?") by Dietrich in 1962 at a UNICEF concert. She also recorded the song in English and in German, the latter titled "Sag' mir, wo die Blumen sind", with lyrics translated by Max Colpet. She performed the German version on a tour of Israel, where she was warmly received; she was the first performer to break the taboo of publicly using the German language in Israel since WWII.[8][18] Her version peaked No. 20 in German charts.[19]
• Dalida (1933−1987), an Italian-French singer, also recorded the song in French as "Que sont devenues les fleurs?", adapted by Guy Béart in 1962 (Les Années Barclay, vol. 5, 1962).
• The Folkswingers recorded an instrumental version of the song for their second album 12 String Guitar! Vol. 2 (1963).
• Jaap Fischer recorded the song in Dutch as "Zeg me waar de bloemen zijn" (single, B side of "Jan Soldaat", 1963).
• Conny van den Bos (1937−2002) recorded the song in Dutch "Waar zijn al die bloemen toch?", released 1963.
• The Searchers released their version on the album Meet The Searchers, released in June 1963.
• The Springfields featuring Dusty Springfield released a version in German in 1963.
• Bobby Darin (1936−1973) recorded the song on the Golden Folk Hits album on Capitol, 2007, which was released in November 1963.
• Eddy Arnold and The Needmore Creek Singers recorded the song on October 9, 1963, and released it on the Folk Song Book album released in January 1964.
• Erzsi Kovács (1928−2014), a Hungarian pop singer, recorded a version in Hungarian in 1964.[20]
• Heli Lääts (1932−2018), an Estonian concert singer, recorded a version in Estonian in 1964, with the title "Kuhu küll kõik lilled jäid?"[21]
• Vera Lynn (1917−2020) recorded the song as the eleventh cut on her 1964 album "Among My Souvenirs".
• The Brothers Four recorded the song on their 1964 LP "More Big Folk Hits", Columbia Records, CL-2213.
• The Four Seasons recorded the song on their 1964 Philips album Born to Wander, PHM 200 129.
• Lars Lönndahl recorded the song in 1964[22] with Swedish lyrics Inga blommor finns det mer, translated in 1962[23] by Beppe Wolgers.

1965−1969[edit]

1970−1979[edit]

1980−1989[edit]

1990−1999[edit]

2000−2009[edit]

2010−2019[edit]

• Danish-German songwriter and entrepreneur Kirsten Hasberg, of Kassel, Germany, recorded a parody entitled Sag, die Energiewende, wo ist sie geblieben? about the German transition to renewable energies and "energy democracy" (2012).[28]
• Lara Veronin, a Russian-Taiwanese-American singer, recorded a version for the 2012 Taiwanese drama Alice in Wonder City.
• German Avant-garde group Einstürzende Neubauten recorded a German version of the song for their 2014 album Lament.
• The Armistice Pals recorded a version in 2014 that was released as a commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of World War One, and as a tribute to Pete Seeger, who had died earlier that year. The voice of Pete Seeger is heard in the recording along with that of his half-sister Peggy Seeger.

• Canadian singer-songwriter Pierre Lapointe recorded the German version (Sag mir wo die Blumen sind) for his 2022 album L'heure mauve.
• Russian actress and director Renata Litvinova performed a recitative on Russian (Когда же Вы наконец поймёте?) over Marlene Dietrich's singing as a background which can be an act against the Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022).[29]
• Greek singer-songwriter Vasiliki Nika recorded the Greek version (Τα λουλούδια χάθηκαν). The video directed by Alexandros N. V. refers to the Kalavryta massacre.[30]

Foreign-language titles[edit]

Grammy Hall of Fame[edit]

Pete Seeger's recording of his composition was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least 25 years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance."