It Was A Very Good Year

Words & Music by Ervin Drake
Recorded by Frank Sinatra, 1965


Intro: | Em | Am | Em - G dim | B7 |


            Em    B+  Em7   Em6           F              Fm7/6   F
When I was seventeen,           it was a very good year;

          Em       Em/F#      G 
It was a very good year for small town girls

     F                 Fm7/6    F
And soft summer nights;

     E                            D
We'd hide from the lights on the village green

            E    
When I was seventeen.    


(Repeat Intro)

           Em     B+  Em7 Em6          F               Fm7/6    F
When I was twenty-one,       it was a very good year;

         Em        Em/F#     G 
It was a very good year for city girls

      F                 Fm7/6   F
Who lived up the stairs

       E                   D
With perfumed hair that came undone

            E
When I was twenty-one.    


(Repeat Intro)

            Em      B+  Em7 Em6            F              Fm7/6  F
When I was thirty-five,          it was a very good year;

         Em        Em/F#      G 
It was a very good year for blue-blooded girls

    F                Fm7/6  F
Of independent means;

       E                              D
We're ride in limousines that their chauffeurs would drive

            E
When I was thirty-five.   


(Repeat Intro)

             Em       B+   Em7  Em6              F                Fm7/6  F
And now the days are short,          I'm in the autumn of my years,

           Em         Em/F#      G 
And now I think of my life as  vintage wines

    F            Fm7/6  F
In fine old kegs;

          E                       D
From the brim to the dregs, they pour sweet and clear...

          E
It was a very good year.


Instrumental Coda:

| Em | Am | Em - G dim  B7 |  E  |


Ironically, I'm told that Sinatra first heard this song from precisely the same source I did: The Kingston Trio beat him to it by almost five full years.


 
The lyric and guitar chord transcriptions on this site are the work of The Guitarguy and are intended for private study, research, or educational purposes only. Individual transcriptions are inspired by and and based upon the recorded versions cited, but are not necessarily exact replications of those recorded versions.