A 1980 reissue of the single on the Old Gold Label, still featuring Leitch on The Beach as the B side. The B side for most versions of the single was Leitch on the Beach, a song written by Noel about the singer Donovan. The song (with the English lyrics) was introduced in the film The Thomas Crown Affair (1968),[1] [11], The lyrics for the French-language rendering of "The Windmills of Your Mind" were written by Eddy Marnay and this version, entitled "Les Moulins de mon cœur", was first recorded in 1968 by Marcel Amont who had a minor French chart hit (peak #49). [20] Introduced on the album Ostrov Heleny Vondráčkové,[19] "Můžeš zůstat, můžeš jít" has become a signature song for Vondráčková: in 2012 when her three CD retrospective (Nejen) o lásce was issued, Vondráčková cited "Můžeš zůstat, můžeš jít" as "the song on the [anthology] dearest to [her] heart". The Argentinian version of the single featured a moody black and white picture from the Thomas Crown Affair on the cover. It was also taken from Santa Monica Pier. From the 1968 Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway film The Thomas Crown Affair. atured Leitch on the Beach as the B-side. When we finished we said: "What do we call this? Despite the film being made, it is not believed that it was ever broadcast and the footage is now very rare. Windmills was released all over the world in a number of different versions. The film which caused the scheduling conflict has been identified as Take a Girl Like You directed by Jonathan Miller.[3]. "It was recorded live on a huge sound stage at Paramount, with the accompanying film clips running on a giant screen and Michel blowing kisses to the orchestra. We listened to all of them and decided to wait until the next day to choose one. "The Windmills of Your Mind" is a song with music by French composer Michel Legrand and English lyrics written by Americans Alan and Marilyn Bergman. So reluctantly, he sang shone [long vowel sound] and our rhyme was intact. The style of the video bears some similarities to the Thomas Crown Affair film, which the song was recorded for. Movie: The Thomas Crown Affair Song: Sting - Windmills of Your Mind Harrison's version had a US single in the US in July 1968 soon after the premiere of the film and similarly was released in the British Isles at the time of the film's 7 February 1969 premiere in the UK and Ireland. [7], Local hit parades indicate that Springfield's "Windmills" had Top Ten impact in only select larger markets: Boston, Southern California, and Miami. The track was recorded because the director of the Thomas Crown Affair, Norman Jewison, wanted a song that sounded like The Beatles track Strawberry Fields Forever to go with a scene where Steve McQueen's character is flying a glider in the film. Sign in|Recent Site Activity|Report Abuse|Print Page|Powered By Google Sites. The song entered the UK chart on March 1, 1969. [10] and Nr. Alan and Marilyn Bergman] seven or eight melodies. Alan Bergman: "Michel [Legrand] played us [ie. The track did reach #3 on the Easy Listening chart in Billboard a feat matched by Springfield's third subsequent single "Brand New Me" which therefore ties with "The Windmills" as having afforded Springfield her best-ever solo showing on a Billboard chart. Noel was recorded by the BBC at the Glastonbury music festival in 2011, performing The Windmills of Your Mind. The German version of the single strangely featured cover art taken from the album Collage, which was released a year before the Windmills of Your Mind. 4 in the Turkish hit parade in April 1970. "[3] It was Feliciano's version of "The Windmills" which became a hit in the Netherlands, reaching #11 on the Dutch chart in November 1969. For the album by Paul Motian, see, "Marrying The Image: Alan and Marilyn Bergman", "The Windmills of Your Mind" – Noel Harrison, 3 April 1969, "10 to 23 – José Feliciano – Songs, Reviews, Credits", "Eva Mendes: "Jeder braucht einen Schutzengel, "Helena Vondráčková - Ostrov Heleny Vondráčkové", "Helena Vondráčková - 風 の ささやき – Kaze no sasayaki", "Helena Vondráčková: Jazz miluju už od mládí", High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin'), Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be), Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Windmills_of_Your_Mind&oldid=973025487, Best Original Song Golden Globe winning songs, Best Original Song Academy Award-winning songs, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, "I Feel Love" Lyrics by Betty Box, Music by, This page was last edited on 15 August 2020, at 00:12. And he said 'No, it's our language!' "The Windmills of Your Mind" is a song with music by French composer Michel Legrand and English lyrics written by Americans Alan and Marilyn Bergman. Released in July 1968 by Reprise the song reached number eight in the British charts. It also won the 1969 Oscar for best original song in a film. and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. So we restructured the song so that the line appeared again at the end. In April 1969 the third A-side release from Dusty in Memphis was announced as "I Don't Want to Hear It Anymore" with "The Windmills of Your Mind" as B-side: however Wexler was prepared to promote "Windmills" as the A-side if it won the Oscar for Best Song, reportedly instructing mailroom clerks at Atlantic Records' New York City headquarters to listen to the Academy Awards broadcast the night of 14 April 1969; hearing "The Windmills" announced as the Best Song winner was the clerks' cue to drive a station wagon loaded with 2500 copies of a double-sided promo single of Springfield's version – identified on the label as "Academy Award Winner" – to the New York City general post office, where the copies of the single were mailed out to key radio stations across the US. [8], "The Windmills of Your Mind" was recorded by José Feliciano for his 1969 album 10 to 23,[9] and Feliciano performed the song on the Academy Awards ceremony broadcast of 14 April 1969; the song's original singer Noel Harrison would later opine of Feliciano's performance: "A wonderful musician and compelling singer, he made much too free with the beautiful melody in my humble opinion. It peaked at number eight and spent 14 weeks in the charts. That line is kind of interesting.' And we said: 'Yes, but it's our song.' The lyric we wrote was stream-of-consciousness. Noel Harrison recorded the song after Andy Williams passed on it: according to Harrison: "It was recorded live on a huge sound stage at Paramount, with the accompanying film clips running on a giant screen and Michel blowing kisses to the orchestra. On the Cash Box chart, the song rose as high as #22. "[3] Harrison took issue with the couplet "Like a tunnel that you follow to a tunnel of its own / Down a hollow to a cavern where the sun has never shone", singing the word "shone" British-style with a short vowel sound making the rhyme with "own" imperfect. [17], In 1970 Helena Vondráčková, prior to recording "The Windmills of Your Mind" with its original English lyrics for her album Isle of Helena (1972), recorded the song as rendered in Czech: "Můžeš zůstat, můžeš jít",[19] and also Japanese: "Kaze no sasayaki". As a result, it was a current UK release when "The Windmills of Your Mind" received an Academy Award nomination on 24 February 1969: Harrison's single debuted at #36 in the UK Top 50 dated 4 March 1969 and had risen to #15—abetted by performances by Harrison on the 27 March 1969 broadcast of Top of the Pops and also on variety shows hosted by Rolf Harris and Scott Walker—when the song won the Academy Award on 14 April 1969, an endorsement which facilitated the Top Ten entry of Harrison's single on the UK chart dated 22 April 1969 with its chart peak of #8 effected two weeks later. Marilyn Bergman: "We said 'No, it's shone [long vowel sound].'

A cover by Sting was used in the 1999 remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. For more details on Noel Harrison go to: http://www.thewindmillsofyourmind.comNoel Harrison sings the Oscar winning classic, the Windmills of Your Mind, from the Thomas Crown Affair film.Noel also recorded a number of brilliant albums during the 1960s, including the self titled Noel Harrison, Collage, Santa Monica Pier and The Great Electric Experiment is Over.All the albums featured covers of such artists as Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and the Beatles.Currently available on CD are Noel Harrison and the compilation Life is a Dream.Also available for digital download are the albums Collage, Santa Monica Pier and The Great Electric Experiment is Over.Please visit the Noel Harrison fan site for more info: http://www.thewindmillsofyourmind.comOr to buy the song, go to itunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/noel-harrison/id4228946 [22], This article is about the song. Jerry Wexler, president of Atlantic Records, heard "The Windmills of Your Mind" on the soundtrack of The Thomas Crown Affair and championed having Dusty Springfield record the song for her debut Atlantic album Dusty in Memphis, overcoming the singer's strong resistance; Springfield's friend and subsequent manager Vicki Wickham would allege: "Dusty always said she hated it because she couldn't identify with the words.