Song lyrics to It Was a Very Good Year, composed by Ervin Drake in 1961 and originally recorded by Bob Shane with the Kingston Trio
When I was seventeen
It was a very good year
It was a very good year for small
Town girls and soft summer nights
We’d hide from the lights
On the village green
When I was seventeen
When I was twenty-one
It was a very good year
It was a very good year for city girls
Who lived up the stair
With all that perfumed hair
And it came undone
When I was twenty-one
When I was thirty-five
It was a very good year
It was a very good year for blue
Blooded girls of independent means
We’d ride in limousines
Their chauffeurs would drive
When I was thirty-five
But now the days are short
I’m in the autumn of the year
And now I think of my life as vintage
Wine from fine old kegs
From the brim to the dregs
It poured sweet and clear
It was a very good year