The Carnival is Over (The Seekers)

11 JANUARY 1966


A song that can occasionally reduce Australians of a certain age to a blubbering mess, the Seekers’ ‘The Carnival is Over’ was still in the UK charts on this day, having been #1 prior to the rise of ‘Day Tripper’.

The band was rather conservative in style but sounded very good together, had great arrangements, and of course Judith Durham was a brilliant singer. In later decades they would draw emotional responses from audiences whenever they played this song at the end of each concert in what seemed to be a long sequence of ‘farewell tours’ (the group first disbanded in 1968 but have reformed for tours and special events many times, the latest being in 2014).

This video, shot in 1967, shows the band determinedly holding on to their sensible side-parting haircuts and suburban middle-class mannerisms as the pop world went crazy around them.

Released: 1965
Highest chart position: #1 (UK), #105 (US), #1 (Aus)
Label: Columbia DB 7711
Writer: Tom Springfield (lyrics only)
Producer: Tom Springfield

The Carnival is Over (The Seekers)