Day Is Done (song)

Background

Peter Yarrow composed "Day Is Done" in 1968, crafting it as an anti-war piece from the viewpoint of his younger brother, who was at risk of being drafted during the Vietnam War. The song became a well-known protest anthem of that period. Yarrow opened a concert with it in Washington in November 1969, part of an anti-war march he had helped organize. He later explained that the song’s core idea is that children will guide humanity toward a better future.

The single was captured live at Carnegie Hall, with an orchestra later arranged and added at A&T Studios by Chris Dedrick. A different studio version, featuring a children’s choir from the Westchester Ethical Society nursery school, appeared on the album Peter, Paul and Mommy, released in May. That album accidentally omitted the second half of the second repeat in the song’s refrain; the mistake was fixed on the compilation Around the Campfire by using the second half of the first repeat instead.

Yarrow eventually turned the lyrics into a children’s book as part of his Songbook Series, which includes a three-song CD containing a version he recorded with his daughter Bethany. This was the last single Peter, Paul and Mary recorded together as a group, though their version of "Leaving on a Jet Plane" came out as a single in 1969 from the 1967 album Album 1700.

Cover versions

Nana Mouskouri recorded a French version of this song, "Mon Enfant," with lyrics by Boris Bergman, for her 1969 album Dans le soleil et dans le vent, and she also performed the original English version. Issued as a single near the end of 1969, "Mon Enfant" reached number 20 in the Dutch charts and number 17 on Belgium's Ultratop Wallonia chart in early 1970. Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge released a cover in 1970 that climbed to number 98 on the Billboard Hot 100. Agnes Chan included a cover on her 1971 debut album, Will the Circle Game Be Unbroken.

Did You Know?

• Cash Box said its "live feeling and teen-oriented lyric" gave the song solid sales potential.
• The song was nominated at the 12th Annual Grammy Awards in 1970 in the category of Best Folk Performance, won by Joni Mitchell's Clouds.