Today (The New Christy Minstrels song)

"Today" is a 1964 folk song that was a hit for The New Christy Minstrels. Written by the group's founder, Randy Sparks, it was introduced in the American comedy-Western film Advance to the Rear (1964) and released on the album titled Today.

"Today"
Song by The New Christy Minstrels
from the album 'Today'
B-side"Miss Katy Cruel"
ReleasedMay 1964 (1964-05)
GenreFolk
LabelColumbia Records
Songwriter(s)Randy Sparks

History

Randy Sparks founded the American large-ensemble folk-music group The New Christy Minstrels in 1961, during popular music's folk revival. The band recorded two Top 40 radio hits in 1963, "Green, Green"[1] and "Saturday Night",[2] but creative tensions within the organization led to Sparks' decision to leave.[3] On the verge of exiting the group, whose name he would sell to its managers, Sparks

...contracted to write the score for a film comedy set during the Civil War titled Advance to the Rear, and as part of that soundtrack he wrote "Today" (perhaps better recognizable from its opening line, "Today, while the blossoms still cling to the vine"), its simple folk style reflecting the 19th-century time period of the film. The temporal tone of the lyric, in turn, may have reflected the film's wartime setting ("Who cares what the morrow may bring?")...[3]

The final song on The New Christy Minstrels' May 1964 Columbia Records album Today,[4] the title track was released as the single Columbia 43000 with the B side "Miss Katy Cruel". The record peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard magazine "Hot 100" chart and No. 4 on the magazine's Adult Contemporary chart.[5][6]

Production

Vocalists on the original release of "Today" include New Christy Minstrels members Barry McGuire, later to issue the solo hit "Eve of Destruction", and Gene Clark, who would go on to co-found the rock band The Byrds.[3]

Critical analysis

AllMusic reviewer William Ruhlmann calls it a "lovely folkish ballad",[3] while AllMusic's Bruce Eder, reviewing the album, founds the song "achingly beautiful."[4]

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References
  1. "Green Green" peaked at No. 14, per Billboard magazine's "The Hot 100" chart for week of September 7, 1963. Retrieved May 11, 2020. Archived from the original on May 14, 2019.
  2. "Saturday Night" peaked at No. 29, per Billboard magazine's "The Hot 100" chart for week of November 30, 1963. Retrieved May 11, 2020.Archived from the original on April 15, 2019.
  3. Ruhlmann, William. "The New Christy Minstrels: "Today"". AllMusic. Archived from the original on May 15, 2015. Retrieved May 11, 2020.
  4. Eder, Bruce. "The New Christy Minstrels: Today". AllMusic. Archived from the original on August 3, 2016. Retrieved May 11, 2020.
  5. "Today" at No. 17 on Billboard magazine's "The Hot 100" chart for week of June 20, 1964. Retrieved May 11, 2020. Archived from the original on July 11, 2018.
  6. Whitburn, Joel, ed. (2008). "New Christy Minstrels, The". Joel Whitburn Presents Across the Charts: The 1960s. Record Research. p. 279. ISBN 978-0898201758.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  • "Today" (single) at Discogs. Retrieved May 11, 2020. Archived from the original on May 11, 2020.
  • Today (album) at Discogs. Retrieved May 11, 2020. Archived from the original on May 11, 2020.
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