"I don't see how you could forget about it."
As an avid MacColl/Seeger follower, I have to confess I hardly heard the song until its totally unexpected popularity (which embarrased him enormously, though it did finance their 'Blackthorn' albums, which, they said, gave them the freedom to record what they wanted rather than be answerable to the record companies as what they could record). I think the only time I heard it sung was on the New Briton Gazette and Lover's Garland albums (may be mistaken about the latter), sung by Peggy. She confirmed the 'over-the-phone' story, and said he made it on the spot because she needed a contemporary love song for the gig she was doing.
I heard Ewan send it up once in their car on the way home from the Singers Club when I was living with them for a short time - he never recorde it to my knowledge and I never heard him sing it in a club.
Peggy gave me a tape of recorded versions she was aware of, which were: Mary Travers, Harry Belafonte, Johnny Mathis, Vikki Carr, Roberta Flack, Andy Williams, The Smothers Brothers, The Brothers Four, The Kingston Trio, and Elvis Presley.
More recently a friend has added: Gordon Lightfoot, Acker Bilk, Dexter Gordon, Mantovani Orchestra, St Christopher Gregorian Chant.
It was also used by the Irish charity Trocaire for a television appeal.
Jim Carroll