‘Seasons In The Sun’ was originally a French song called ‘Le Moribund” (the dying man). It was translated to English and released by a band called The Kingston Trio.

The original French version was about an old man who was dying of a broken heart and he was saying goodbye to his priest and his best friend and his wife, who cheated on him. Her name was Francoise, and it went, ‘Adieu, Francoise, my trusted wife, without you I’d have had a lonely life. You cheated lots of times but then I forgave you in the end, though your lover was my friend.”

Terry Jacks’ inspiration for re-working the song was a good friend of his that had leukemia and had 6 months to live.

“He was gone in four months,” Jacks told us. “He was a very good friend of mine, one of my best friends, and he said I was the first one that he told. I remembered this song of an old man dying of a broken heart, and I liked some of the melody and there was something there. I rewrote the song about him.”

Source: SongFacts