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Yesterday Charles Aznavour passed away. To honour him we place this video, one of his greatest hits and one of his most popular compositions, on the TopPop channel. May he rest in peace. This song ‘Yesterday When I Was Young’ was originally written by Aznavour with the French title ‘Hier Encore’. It was released in September 1964 but became a worldwide hit in 1971. The English-language lyrics, written by Herbert Kretzmer, tell of a man reflecting on his life. He recounts how he had wasted his youth on self-centered pursuits, and that, now that he is older, he will not be able to do all that he had planned; this implies that he may be close to his impending death. This TV recording was made at a rehearsal in theatre Bellevue in Amsterdam for a Dutch TV show called ‘Muziek Is Troef’ broadcast by AVRO Television on 19 January 1971. The song entrered the Dutch Top 40 on 19 dec 1970 and reached # 3 in the Top 40 in January 1971. It reached #6 in the Belgian charts. The song has been performed and recorded by many international stars, such as Bing Crosby, Shirley Bassey, Elvis Presley, Dusty Springfield, Roy Clark, Mel Torme, Lena Horne, Andy Williams, Jimmy Durante, Bobby Bare, Al Martino, The Peanuts, Glen Campbell, Julio Iglesias, Eddy Mitchell, Dean Reed, Johnny Mathis, Marc Almond, Patricia Kaas, Matt Monro, Lena Martell, Nora Aunor, Blossom Dearie and Amanda Lear. According to Billboard, more than 90 versions of the song were recorded before 1972. Charles Aznavour is considered one of the greatest chansonniers of all time. His seventy-year career produced some 294 albums and songs, including the classics ’La Bohème’ and ’She’. Aznavour scored hits in the sixties and seventies in the Netherlands such as ’For me ... formidable’, ’Yesterday When I Was Young’, ’The Old Fashioned Way’, ’She’ and ’Mes emmerdes’. Despite his high age, Aznavour still performed, for example in early March in an almost sold out AFAS Live in Amsterdam. The singer was confronted more often with his fragile, physical condition in the past six months. For example, he was admitted to a hospital in St. Petersburg in April because he became unwell during a rehearsal. Watch our great music videos ❯ More TopPop? Subscribe here ❯ More info on Wikipedia ❯ Broadcast date: 19 January 1971 This is to let you know that the video recording of the video clip was originally recorded by AVROTROS Broadcasting. AVROTROS Broadcasting hereby warrants and represents that it is the sole and exclusive owner of the physical film and/or videotape footage in this video clip. The performance of the artist(s) in the clip was filmed and recorded with the written consent of the artist(s) and their representatives. AVROTROS is a Dutch radio and television broadcaster, founded in 2014 from a merger of AVRO and TROS. From January 1st, 2014 the name of the merged broadcaster was used in joint programmes. AVRO was founded in 1923 as the Netherlands first public broadcaster. TROS started broadcasting in 1964. Toppop was a weekly AVRO pop program that was aired between 1970 and 1988. AVROTROS Broadcasting PO Box 2 1200 JA Hilversum The Netherlands TopPop was the first regular dedicated pop music TV show in the Dutch language area. Dutch broadcaster AVRO aired the programme weekly, from 1970 to 1988. Presenter Ad Visser hosted the show for its first fifteen years. World famous music artists performed on TopPop: ABBA, 10CC, Bee Gees, The Jacksons, David Bowie, Earth & Fire, Boney M, Smokie, KC & The Sunshine Band, Chick, Donna Summer, Rod Stewart, and many many more.
