The Marmalade – Reflections of My Life

This song peaked at #10 in the Billboard 100 in 1970 and #3 in the UK. The Marmalade were more successful in the UK by placing 10 top 10 singles in the UK charts but only charting Reflections of My Life in the Billboard top ten. It’s a song I heard many times when I was younger but didn’t know anything about it.

From Songfacts.

This dramatic ballad from the Age of Aquarius finds the singer describing a very bleak outlook on life and the times. The song was sort of a hippie version of the blues. >>

The Marmalade were a Scottish pop group who enjoyed several hits in the UK between 1968 and 1976. Originally a band called Dean Ford & The Gaylords, they changed their name to Marmalade in 1967. They are best remembered in Britain for their cover of the Beatles song “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” which topped the UK charts around Christmas 1968. In 1969, they signed to Decca Records, and their contract gave them complete freedom to write and produce their own records. The fruits of this arrangement was the recording of this song with its distinctive backwards guitar break, which was their only American hit.

This song was written by vocalist Dean Ford and the band’s main songwriter, keyboardist Junior Campbell. Campbell went on to pen the theme from the British TV series Thomas The Tank Engine, which was narrated in its first two seasons by Ringo Starr.

Reflections of My Life

The changing of sunlight to moonlight
Reflections of my life
Oh, how they fill my eyes

The greetings of people in trouble
Reflections of my life
Oh, how they fill my eyes

Oh, my sorrows
Sad tomorrows
Take me back to my own home

Oh, my crying (Oh, my crying)
Feel I’m dying, dying
Take me back to my own home

I’m changing, arranging
I’m changing
I’m changing everything
Everything around me

The world is
A bad place
A bad place
A terrible place to live
Oh, but I don’t want to die

Oh, my sorrows
Sad tomorrows
Take me back to my own home

Oh, my crying (Oh, my crying)
Feel I’m dying, dying
Take me back to my own home

Oh, my sorrows
Sad tomorrows
Take me back to my own home