Eugene Raskin, 94; Author, Playwright Also Wrote a Hit Song

Eugene Raskin, 94, eclectic author, playwright, educator, musician and songwriter who turned a Russian folk melody into the 1968 hit song “Those Were the Days,” died June 7 of natural causes at his home in Manhattan.

Born in the Bronx and educated at Columbia University and the University of Paris, Raskin worked briefly as an architect and then taught architecture at Columbia from 1942 to 1976. He wrote three books about architecture, “Architecturally Speaking,” “Sequel to Cities” and “Architecture and People.”

He was also an architect of many forms of entertainment. He wrote plays such as the 1949 comedy “One’s a Crowd,” about a multiple-personality atomic scientist, and the 1951 romantic fantasy “Amata.” He also wrote novels, including the 1971 “Stranger in My Arms,” and film scripts such as “How to Look at a City,” the first-prize documentary winner at American Film Festival in 1964.

A guitarist who performed with his wife, Francesca, Raskin wrote the lyrics and music for “Those Were the Days” in 1962. After Paul McCartney heard the couple sing the song in a London pub, he had it recorded by Welsh teenager Mary Hopkin for the Beatles’ Apple Records. Her version reached No. 2 on U.S. charts and No. 1 in Britain in 1968.