Terry Jacks - ...starfish on the beach (Remastered) (2015)

In 1968 he founded with his future wife Susan Pesklevits (born 1948), from which he divorced in 1973, The Poppy Family, which also parted in 1973. In 1969, she had this with Which Way You Goin 'Billy? a number one hit in Canada and a number two hit in the US charts. Then Jacks worked independently and participated in 1972 on an album by the Beach Boys, for which he proposed an English version of the 1961 song Le Moribond of the Belgian singer Jacques Brel (1929-1978) as Seasons in the Sun.

In 1963, the copywriter Rod McKuen translated that song into English and the Kingston Trio recorded it. The title did not sell very well and did not make the leap into the US charts, however, Jacks remained in the memory. After the Beach Boys refused to record the song, Jacks partially rewrote it and released it in 1973. Seasons in the Sun made it to the top of the charts in the US, UK, and Canada, selling millions of copies worldwide ; He stayed in the US for 15 weeks in Canada and 17 weeks in Canada. Also in German-speaking countries, the song reached in Germany, Austria and Switzerland number one in the hit parades. The album Seasons in the Sun was far less commercially successful, it only reached number 81 in the US album charts.

Seasons in the Sun is the story of a dying young man saying goodbye to his neighbors and friends. While McKuen had tried to stay as close to Brel's original as possible, Jacks made some changes to the final stanza on McKuen's displeasure ("and every time that I was down ...") that reflects the seriousness of the original ("you cheated lots of times but then ... ") were detrimental, but certainly not to its sales-related disadvantage.

In 1973, Jack met with Jacques Brel. This suggested another recording, namely If You Go Away (Brel original: Ne me quitte pas), the English text had also written Rod McKuen, but this was only a minor success in the US, in the UK reached the title of the 8th place in the single charts. Another hit he did not succeed and his version of Rock'n'Roll (I Gave You the Best Years of My Life), with which Kevin Johnson was successful in 1973, came just once for a week in the US charts. Thus, Terry Jacks Seasons in the Sun is one of the category of one hit wonder.

Jacks later became active in Canada and the US as an environmental campaigner environmental watch