1965 Folk Rock Smash Lifted Its Lyrics Directly From the Bible to Become an Unexpected Hippie Anthem

Few folk rock songs of the 1960s had origins as unexpected as this biblical-inspired hit.

The Byrds‘ “Turn, Turn, Turn (To Everything There Is a Season)” was a remake of a song written by Pete Seeger in 1959. The tune was later recorded by the folk group The Limeliters in 1962. Their version was named “To Everything There Is a Season.”

The song’s lyrics were lifted directly from the King James Version of the Bible, from the third chapter of Ecclesiastes, according to Far Out Magazine. The Byrds’ member Roger McGuinn loved the song and reworked it for Judy Collins in 1963 before his band took a chance on it and created an unexpected hippie anthem that defined the counterculture movement of the era.

According to a quote by McGuinn reprinted by Far Out, “It was a standard folk song by that time. But I played it, and it came out rock ‘n’ roll because that’s what I was programmed to do like a computer.”

Parade Daily🎬 SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬

He added, “I couldn’t do it as it was traditionally. I came out with that samba beat, and we thought it would make a good single.”

The Byrds’ arrangement melded folk with rock ‘n’ roll through the contributions of Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, and Michael Clarke. 

According to Variety, “McGuinn and The Byrds had intuitively tapped into the deeper folk traditions of Pete Seeger for a unifying song of meaning. Amidst the tumult over the Vietnam War, rising social and racial protest and the emergence of flower power, it was a message of change, hope and acceptance, drawn from the bible itself — a song that came to characterize the blossoming of the 1960s. A song whose time had come, as it was the season.”

The words attributed to “a season” for each moment of life. “A time to be born, a time to die; a time to plant, a time to reap; a time to kill, a time to heal.”

The song’s lyrics were almost verbatim from the Bible text. Seeger added a line at the end that he hoped would resonate with more modern-day audiences; “A time of peace; I swear it’s not too late.”

“Turn, Turn, Turn” became The Byrds’ second U.S. number-one hit, following the success of “Mr. Tambourine Man.” It reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1965.

The song was inducted into the National Recording Registry in May 2026 as part of a group of recordings “worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage.”

Related: 1985 Rock Storytelling Anthem Dubbed the ‘Granddaddy of Bible Songs’ Stretches 6 Minutes Long