Those Were The Days (Theme to All In The Family) by Archie and Edith Bunker

Album: Tube Tunes, Vol. 1: The '70s (1971)

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Songfacts®:

This was written by the Broadway songwriters Charles Strouse and Lee Adams for the TV show All In The Family, which opened with Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor) and his wife Edith (Jean Stapleton) singing it around a piano. Created by Norman Lear, the show ran on CBS from 1971-1980; for the last season, an instrumental version was used to open the show.
The song is an expression of the Archie Bunker character on All In The Family. Set in his ways and bigoted, he reminisces on the "good old days" when there was good music (Glenn Miller), reliable cars, and no gay people ("girls were girls and men were men"). Throughout the series, Archie struggles with changing times and often butts heads with his progressive-minded daughter and her husband (played by Rob Reiner). Bunker was a nuanced character, good-hearted but also irredeemable.

The show was so transgressive that the first six episodes opened with a warning that it "seeks to throw a humorous spotlight on our frailties, prejudices and concerns. By making them a source of laughter, we hope to show - in a mature fashion - just how absurd they are."
A longer set of lyrics was written for this, with lines like, "Hair was short and skirts were long." You can see them in the lyrics section.
This harkens back to a time when TV theme songs could take their sweet time. In later years, sitcoms tended to cut back on theme songs or eliminate them completely (like Seinfeld) to create more show content, but like many shows of its time, the first 45 seconds of All In The Family was devoted to the opening theme.
There is an orchestral funky disco arrangement (orchestra leader Al Capps) sung by Sammy Davis Jr. on an album with a compilation of hits by different artists from 1977. Sammy was a guest on a famous episode of All In The Family where he kisses Archie on the cheek while a reporter takes a photo. >>>
Suggestion credit:
Cees - Amsterdam, Netherlands
Carroll O' Connor and Jean Stapleton, who played Archie and Edith, re-recorded this for the second season to make some of the lyrics more clear. The line most people couldn't understand was, "Gee our old LaSalle ran great." A LaSalle was a type of car made by General Motors from 1927-1940.
The song's co-writer, Charles Strouse, sometimes performed this at concerts, even imitating Edith's screech. >>>
Suggestion credit:
Brett - Edmonton, Canada
This was used throughout an episode of The Simpsons titled "Lisa's Sax," performed by Marge and Homer Simpson, with updated lyrics and the opening scenes parodying that of the opening sequence of All In The Family. >>>
Suggestion credit:
Patrick - Tallapoosa, GA
Woody Harrelson and Marisa Tomei sang this on May 22, 2019 when they played Archie and Edith in a live performance of All in the Family on ABC. The Jeffersons, another iconic Norman Lear sitcom with a famous theme song, was also revived that night with Jamie Foxx as George Jefferson.

On December 18, 2019, ABC repeated the event, this time pairing All In The Family with Good Times, another Norman Lear sitcom. As the episodes aired, congress was voting to impeach President Donald Trump; ABC briefly broke into Good Times with the news, but didn't preempt the shows.

Comments: 48

T from MI agree with baby boomer from Mn
Baby Boomer from Minneapolis MnThe meaning of the show "ALL in The Family" was to open up people's minds to think about the social downfalls that were actually going on in the United States of America and yet most people would never have talked about the things that were happening here and many places around the world.... But never had the courage to talk about them, much less do anything about the way people were treating each other..... NOT like Brothers and Sisters!!! The same people that are Holyer then Throw are the same people that will walk out of Church, a Synagogue or a Mosque and pass by people who need a Helping Hand (UP NOT OUT) and about 98% + wouldn't even think twice to avoid or walk past or even step over their Brothers or Sisters like they aren't even there!!! HOW NOT Much has really changed in the past 60+ years!! Yet everyone is thinking that they are such good Christians, Holy or Spiritual individuals that they are!!!! Yet The social misconduct and lack of simple respect and compassion that NO ONE cares about THEIR fellow HUMAN BEINGS, YES OUR BROTHERS & SISTERS Don't even show ANY Compassion or EMPATHY for the People that WE WERE ALL TOLD TO LOVE each other as WE LOVE Ourselves.......... Yet everyone believes that they are "GOOD People" and are going to be going to Heaven some day to be JUDGED by The CREATOR, The Almighty, OUR Heavenly Father, The Great Spirit, ALLAH, THE ALMIGHTY LORD, GOD ( whomever you Pray too)
WE Were supposed to learn to laugh and our stupidity and to learn from our mistakes and to Learn how to LOVE Each Other!! I Believe that the only thing that WE have ever learned from one another was How to HATE and to do what ever it takes to make sure that " I " or "ME" is the ONLY Thing that matters and IT'S OK to do whatever I want to do to MY BROTHERS and SISTERS as long as I get everything that I Want NO Matter what I have to do to get MINE!!

Now days social media along with AI will be the end any hope that HUMANS will ever be that again.......... HU MAN

Father, Please Forgive Them...... They Know NOT WHAT They DO!!!
Wendy from WisconsinOf course, Archie's family could have had a LaSalle. Nothing in the song said they bought it NEW. It's the nature of things that people who buy new models sell them to people who buy used models. And GM had a marketing strategy of offering Chevey's to the low end, Pontiac to those who wanted to step up, and Cadillac to those who had it made (or were willing to sacrifice other parts of their lives for the best cars.) And sometimes--as a former member of my writing group like to reminisce about--families find out the hard way that their just-bought car is three inches too tall to fit in the garage, so they're under to sell it quick, giving a bargain to a family in the right place at the right time. And during the Depression a lot of families had to sell off their cars at pennies on the dollar, La Salles included.
Raymond N. from Olympia, WashingtonThink people, Caroll O'Conner was eight when Herbert Hoover left office, not likely he would have thought Hoover was the great President, though if you think of the shows irony, Archie might have. The rest, as others have already said, are basically ironic jokes at Archie's expense, at least in my opinion.
Mrman from UsaThe comments in here are really astounding. Herbert Hoover was a US President who presided (unfortunately for him) over the Great Depression. J. Edgar Hoover was the former head of the FBI, and HE is the one who is often accused of being a cross-dresser. LaSalle was a GM brand designed to be top-of-the-line but a little cheaper than Cadillac. It was the "second highest" below Cadillac in the luxury pecking order at GM. And yes, it was very unlikely that middle-class people from Archie Bunker's family would have been driving a LaSalle. If Archie's family had a LaSalle, then they were also likely not scarred by the Depression, or the war, or the civil rights struggles of the time he is singing about. The funny, and disturbing, thing I see in many of these comments, are the people who think the lyrics from this song are "right on". They are intended to be just another mocking joke, of which Archie himself is the butt, but as usual (like in the show), he never realizes when he is the target of most of the jokes and insults. The last thing on Earth the nation needed was another Herbert Hoover, whose disasterous policies only worsened the Great Depression. And the lines about "welfare state" and "pulling your weight", along with Archie's disdain for liberal policies, are acutely ironic, considering that he himself belongs to a labor union whose very existence is the result of "liberal" policies that protected workers like him from wealthy and powerful businesses and unfair labor practices. And then, of course, the 1930s and 40s "were the days" only if you overlook the war, the depression, and the horrific racism. They were great if you were white, didn't get killed in the war, and didn't lose your home or job during the Depression. Otherwise... not so much. But like everything else he talks about, Archie is singing about the way he "thinks" it was. Not the way it really was. All In The Family was not just a liberal "Archie-bashing" show. Only people who think like Archie believe that. The show is a SATIRE - with each of the 4 of them portraying exaggerated caricatures of a personality type. Mike and Gloria are often protrayed as ridiculously over the top liberals just as much as Archie is portrayed as an ignorant bigot. Mike is a mooch, who lives rent-free in Archie's house, is perpetually in school with no income, and he eats them out of house an home at the dinner table, all the while seemingly oblivious to how much he owes Archie for the roof over his head. Edith is portrayed as a child-like idiot (although she is much smarter and wiser than people realize). Gloria (who does work, while Mike is in school), for all her ideals of feminism and independence, often shows herself to be an emotional, irrational little girl under pressure (actually lending credence to Archie's never-ending perception of her as "little goil").
Brad from Oakland, CaliforniaA number of folks commented on the La Salle being a luxury car of the 1930s that Archie Bunker's working class family never could have afforded. If they'd had a car at all it would have likely been a Chevrolet Six, the least expensive car of the time. This is where songwriting comes in. "Chevrolet Six" does not fit the meter of the lyric, and shortening it to "Chevrolet" would lose the old-timely reference since Chevrolets were (and still are) in production. La Salle fits the meter and establishes a nostalgic past. No other car model from the 30s (Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, etc) fit the meter or serve nostalgia.

Regarding Herbert Hoover, although his market based policies failed to provide much relief to the suffering of the Depression, he was anti-socialist, which tracks with Archie's reactionary political outlook. The audience may be intended to see the irony that Archie, a Longshoreman, whose militant and sometimes explicitly anti-capitalist union has fought for the wages and benefits that underwrite his relatively comfortable lifestyle as a homeowner who supports his family. Higher education became accessible to the children of this generation who benefited from the economic policies of FDR which redistributed resources to the working class. The upward mobility of the Bunker family, and millions like it, is at least partly attributable to policies that Archie bad-mouths.

A final point is that nostalgia is always selective and often romanticizes the past to justify ones point of view. "Those Were the Days" is a fantastic expression of nostalgia for a past Archie wants to have been true, when straight, white, Protestant men dominated society and see themselves as pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps when in fact they benefited not only from redistributive economics of the post war era but also from various forms of privilege to gain advantages over all those Archie constantly belittles as inferior. For example, the GI Bill's low cost loan program helped WWII veterans like Archie (and my father) become homeowners but racist real estate laws prevented 1.2 million Black veterans from taking advantage of the program. Archie's nostalgia erases inconvenient facts to support his narrow world view and "Those Were the Days" brilliantly encapsulates this in a few verses.

Carroll O'Connor (who portrayed Archie) said of his character: "The American white man is trapped by his own cultural history. He doesn't know what to do about it...

"Archie's dilemma is coping with a world that is changing in front of him. He doesn't know what to do, except to lose his temper, mouth his poisons, look elsewhere to fix the blame for his own discomfort. He isn't a totally evil man. He's shrewd. But he won't get to the root of his problem, because the root of his problem is himself, and he doesn't know it. That is the dilemma of Archie Bunker." (New York Times, March 12, 1972).
Jim And Theresa from Granite City IlAre we the only ones who assumed this was a really old song brought back for All In the Family? After about 50 years, very surprised to find out we were wrong.
Bunrth From Usa from Pb Cty, FlI drove my uncle's beautiful La Salle when I was 15, 1955. Almost hit a parked truck delivering coal to my building in Brooklyn near Ebbetts field, Home of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Greg from San AntonioI recall a line about a radio and "loved the Eddie Cantor show."
Cat ScratchArchie and Edith weren’t the first to share a bed in a sitcom. That was Mary Kay and Johnny.
Jim from New London, CtEvery week, anyone watching in our house would sit on the edge of our chairs, trying to make out the second-to-last- line. It sounded like"geoarolasaragray' I think they actually re-recorded the song, because no one could make it out.
Hifijohn from IllinoisMinor nitpick, I doubt they would be singing about a LaSalle a pretty expensive car back then. By the time the show was aired the LaSalle brand was long gone so everyone was asking what the heck is a Lasalle plus, the way they sang it sounded like ourolasalrangreat.
Ron from MichiganJean must have been a very good singer in real life already as an accomplished stage and screen actress. To sing the theme in Edith's voice is a testament to her skills
MI don't think people waxing poetic about how they miss Jim Crow get that Archie Bunker is the butt of like 90% of the jokes in this show. If you sympathize with him you're media illiterate.
Christopher from MaFascinating song. It makes me imagine Edith and Archie as young people, thirty years before we first made their acquaintance. They must have been "courtin'" in the period 1939-41, when the rest of the world was at war but the US was at peace and the economy had finally recovered from the Depression and the LaSalle was the hot new car. It begins with a reference to the favorite white peoples' music of the period, the Big Band sound characterized by Glenn Miller. (No jazz for our young couple! -- that was for the "coloured folk.") My guess is that if the elder Bunkers could afford to let their boy tool around town on Sundays with his girl in their LaSalle they must have been well off -- BETTER off than the Bunkers circa 1970 were, anyway. So the elder Bunkers probably were okay even during the worst of the Depression, and Archie would have heard from them the sentiment that "we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again."

I imagine also that this lovely period in their lives ended with news about the attack on Pearl Harbor. The longer version of the song specifically references Sunday -- which as ithappens was the day of the week on Dec. 7, 1941 -- maybe our lovely couple heard the news in the car on one of those drives. The phrase "girls were girls and men were men?" Young men, barely passed being boys, were expected to sign up with one of the services after Pearl Harbor. Social pressures here were very strong. Archie would have signed up, Edith would not have, cause "you knew who you were then" and her post was the home front. Maybe she became a Rosie the Riveter while waiting for his safe return.

Really an intriguing song if you think of it this way....
William Bugg from AlhambraDoes anyone know where I can find the notes to the melody of this song? I am wanting to play it on my guitar. Thank You!
Teebee from MdYeah... Remember the good ol days... When women and queers and jews and the assorted colored folks knew their place... Those were the days, indeed.
Regina from Nh The comments have me roaring. Hoover presided over the Great Depression where people stood in breadlines, banks failed, men were so ashamed of losing their jobs many just walked away from their families. Newspapers were called Hoover blankets b/c people were so poor they used them to warm themselves. Yeah, those were the days. It's irony people. My father lived through that and remembers people going through garbage to find food. He worked for the WPA digging ditches. He was younger had had no family to support. Living through that really impacted his life. He was a man of compassion and political action. He saw the difference Social Security made for the aged after Roosevelt was elected. If you have Medicare, thank Roosevelt who defeated Hoover in 1932. This is an interesting interview about the show with Norman Lear (the writer and producer of the show) who is 99 years old. https://n.pr/3kj8gLv
Robyn from MontrealJ Edgar Hoover and Herbert Hoover are two different people.
Shelly from New York These lyrics are so far ahead of the times!! Who would ever think!I was just thinking about the lyrics to this song and never has there been a time where this song made more sense. "Didn't need no welfare state. Everybody pulled his weight" "Girls were girls and men were men
Gary from AlabamaI was just thinking about the lyrics to this song and never has there been a time where this song made more sense. "Didn't need no welfare state. Everybody pulled his weight" "Girls were girls and men were men." Those truly must've been the days
Jay From Texas from TexasBetty and Genie...you're both right and both wrong about the La Salle. The original La Salle, built from 1927-1940, was built mostly by Cadillac employees, and in Cadillac factories, but was released as its own Brand, which fell between Buick and Cadillac in terms of features and pricing. In 1940, GM dropped the La Salle brand, and built the Cadillac La Salle for the 1941 year model only. After that, the name disappeared from the GM line up until 1960, when Buick developed the La Salle II concept car. GM decided not to go with the La Salle name though, and the car was eventually released as the 1963 Buick Riviera.
Michele Piro from Jordan, Ar.My husband (who everyone calls Archie Bunker) & me ( Edith), have all 208 episodes of All in the Family,& have every line memorized. We’ve watched them over and over again continually for the past 47 years together. Yes, Archie was a bigot, but he had a heart of gold. And Edith, well she may have been called a dingbat, but she really knew a lot more than led to believe. They loved each other dearly. Just like when Archie told Edith one night alone in their “ shared “ bed... first sitcom where there wasn’t a nightstand in between twin beds, “ Edith, without you, I’d be nothin’”., or when Edith asked Archie, “ Archie, do you think I’m somethin’?, & Archie replied,” Edith, you’re , somethin’ else.
Richard Pickel from NvBarry from Sauquoit, NY: It was Billboard's Top 100 all-genres singles chart. And their Most Sold In Stores chart. And their Most Played By (radio station) DJs chart. And their Most Played In Juke Boxes chart. Until they merged all four into their new Hot 100 singles chart, and stopped using the other chart names. Cash Box, Billboard's biggest competitor for decades, then began using the Top 100 singles chart name. Cash Box had been right beside Billboard on every news stand and in every supermarket and drug store and library magazine section in the United States, every week, for decades, then one day some years ago it seemed to just disappear without a trace. "What the hell ever happened to Cash Box," I wondered once in awhile in the years since. Recently, I learned that the founder/operator died, his family changed it to an internet-only publication, and have been publishing a new issue every week ever since, at cashboxmagazine.com.
Dj From Pa from PaNorman Lear used this program to further his radical leftist agenda.
Joan from OhioI was fourteen years old when "all in the family" premiered and the conservative bible belt families in my neighborhood banned and forbid their family from watching it. My family thought it was hysterical because it bathed with light the darkness of people's souls. The exposure brought out the rage of the hypocrites. When a few of my stay-over girlfriends got to watch it they were confused as to why their parents would be so upset over it?
Scott from 263 Ridge Rd Oswego NyJust realized it was J Edgar Hoover who was the cross dresser. So maybe lyrics were not as I irony filled as I thought.
Scott from 263 Ridge Rd Oswego NyI always thought that the lyrics had an ironic twist: “And you knew who you were then, Girls were girls and men were men, mister we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again” Wasn’t Herbert Hoover a closeted cross dresser? And “Didn’t need no welfare states, everybody pulled his weight, gee our old LaSalle ran great” referred possibly to the growing corporate welfare situation back then...still looking for irony in the rest of the lyrics though.
Tim from UsaJust wanted to clear something up about the LaSalle. Although the car came from a GM assembly line which also built Cadillacs, the LaSalle was NOT a Cadillac, it was just a LaSalle. The LaSalle the Bunkers are referring to was a more conservative-classed vehicle with multiple traits from Oldsmobile, Buick, Fleetwood, and Cadillac (mutt-make, same company). In fact, the LaSalle almost had a type II series, but GM went with "Buick Riviera" instead. Archie and Edith would definitely be GM folks in the Buick price range, and the LaSalle is considered as an equivalent member of the Buick family since it was never 100% Cadillac.
Rj from WashingtonCorrection:
AND YOU KNEW WHO YOU WERE THEN,
Girls were girls and men were men
Diana from ChicagoOh wow! Now that I know such a treasure exists, I have absolutely got to find the Rat Pack's real Cat's cover version of the song!

I am not familiar with the episode referenced by SongFacts. To be honest, though, I am actually pretty content 'replaying' (figuratively speaking) my imagination's immediate rendering of such a scene:

"Ahhrchie! Oh, Ahhrchie! Won'tcha jus' act real nice-like ta Mistah Davis! Ya know, the man is a genuine OG, remembah?! Oh, Ahhrchie! Ain't it just some good sense to be nice to Mistah Davis, don'tcha think?

Oooooh, say, Ahhrchie! Don't fahhget! At least we might get ta see ya photograph, right in the newspapahs! An' it ain't even fohwr ya's obituary!"

"Heh, an' it ain't even for my obituary. Edith, ya might not wanna speakin' too soon."
Edward from Pittsburghhttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaSalle_(automobile)
Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn January 12th 1971, the sitcom 'All In The Family' premiered on the CBS-TV network...
The weekly series ran for nine seasons with a total of 210 episodes...
The show was nominated for fifty-five 'Primetime Emmy Awards', winning thirty of them; and was nominated for thirty 'Golden Globe Awards, winning eight...
Later in 1971 on December 5th the show's theme song, "Those Were The Days" by Carroll 'Archie' O'Connor & Jean 'Edith' Stapleton, entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #73, seven weeks later on January 23rd, 1972 it would peak at #43 {for 1 week} and it stayed on the chart for 9 weeks.
Robert from Crown Point, InDoes anyone know if Jean Stapleton actually played the piano on the TV show All in the Family? I have wondered this for years!
Carolyn from Knoville, TnI always admired Jean Stapleton for being able to keep a straight face when she sang this--as Edith Bunker she seemed perfectly unaware that she was a terrible singer, and was just singing for the joy of being at the piano with her beloved Archie.
Gennie from Beverly Hills, CaNo Betty. The LaSalle was a lower cost Cadillac model, not a Buick.
Gennie from Beverly Hills, CaNo Garrett. Carroll O'Connor did NOT write the ending theme, Roger Kellaway did, as well as performing it. Also Mr. O'Connor was not an "accomplished pianist" or composer. He did co-write some lyrics for the ending theme "Remembering You", which is odd since the song was never presented with singing, only as an instrumental.
Betty from Seattle, WaOk, I'm old, I admit it and the memory fails sometimes... but, in the song facts it mentions that a LaSalle is a Cadillac? I beg to differ, I believe it's a Buick. Besides, Archie and Edith would not be driving a Cadillac, would they?
Valerie from Essex, OnThank you! It seems like so many others I have never been able to understand the line Gee our old La Salle ran great. I finally went online and now I know it.What a great show it still is. I never missed tuning in to see them. They surely stand the test of time unlike I believe many modern sitcoms will not.
Patrick from East Elmhurst, NyWhat's funny about the song is how it fits the context of the show. Archie is the sort of person for whom the song has no irony and may be taken at face value ("Didn't need no welfare state," or "Mister we could use a man like Herber Hoover again"). Edith is just singing along. The lyrics are reactionary and especially funny coming from the mouths of Archie and Edith, but coming from real people for whom they would be geniune sentiments, they would have been far from funny in the early 1970's. It just goes to show you how context works. I have ridden in an old LaSalle. Big old 1940's sled.

Cheers.
Dave from Scottsdale, AzO'Connor wrote lyrics to the closing song (Remebering You) several years after it was written. He got a composer credit because of that but in the earlier shows, he got no credit.
Don from Newmarket, CanadaMark, Edith was played by Jean Stapleton.
Mark from Lancaster, OhI suspect that Maureen Stapleton could sing fairly well. Her real voice didn't resemble Edith's very much; I imagine that she could several character voices, and most actors take voice lessons. Archie and Edith also recorded a version of "I Remember It Well," from Gigi. It was excellent.
Garrett from Nashville, TnThis song was played at the opening of each show. At the end of the show, over the closing credits, was a piano instrumental written by Carrol O'Connor (Archie) who was an accomplished pianist.
Dawson from Draper, UtThis is the funniest song. Edith can't go high or anything. The show is sooooooooooooooo funny, too.

: )
Kirk from Columbia, MdI had no idea that Strouse and Adams (creators of such hits as "Bye Bye Birdie" and "Annie") were responsible for this great song. I do have one small correction to make, however; it's *Charles* Strouse and *Lee* Adams, not the other way around!
Stefanie Magura from Rock Hill, ScI completely agree with you Catlin. I think the way edith Bunker (I don't remember her real name) sing's it is hilarious. "All In the Family" is just a show that's beyound funny, anyway, too. Edith is the funniest, but Archie is pretty funny too.
Caitlin from Sailsbury, Ncsuch a good song and the lady sings it too funny

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