Seasons in the Sun – Terry Jacks Today

The year was 1974. Terry Jacks had been a sort of pop star for several years in Canada but only had one hit in the U.S. that was the 1973 hit   "Which Way Ya Goin' Billy" that  he recorded with his wife under the name "The Poppy Family".

One year later he was working with the Beach Boys and took them a song by Jaques Brel and Rod McKeun that he thought would be good for them. They declined..But Terry Jacks had a plan "B".

Jacks sang and played guitar in the Chessmen in the early ‘60s. He next joined his future wife, Susan Pesklevits, in several groups before the pair formed The Poppy Family.

The Poppy Family scored with the hits “Which Way You Goin’ Billy?” which hit No. 2 in 1970, “That’s Where I Went Wrong” and “Where Evil Grows.” The band split in 1973 and Terry and Susan divorced.

The following year Jacks went solo with “Seasons in the Sun.” He had suggested the Beach Boys record the song, but they declined. Released on Jack’s own record label, the song became the largest-selling single in Canadian history and earned him three Juno Awards. The monster hit spent more than three months on the U.S. charts and more than four months on the charts in Jacks’ native Canada. More than 11 million copies have been sold.

In 1996, Jacks produced “A Good Thing Lost 1968-1973,” a collection of The Poppy Family songs.

In the late 1970s, Jacks married his manager Margaret (Maggi) Zittier and gradually withdrew from the music world. The couple had a daughter, Holly Michelle Jacks in 1985. Jacks became involved in the environmental movement, focusing on pulp mill pollution issues in Canada. His environmental work has earned him several awards including one from the United Nations Association of Canada and the Western Canada Wilderness Committee.

Following an incident in November 2000, Jacks was initially charged with spousal assault and improper storage of a rifle by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Jacks said that his wife had called the police after he threw a wet dishrag at her when she called him a loser. The assault charge was later dropped and the couple divorced. Jacks married Diane Soza in 2008. He lives near Vancouver.