McGuire's recording was made between July 12 and 15, 1965, and released by
Dunhill Records. The accompanying musicians were P. F. Sloan on
acoustic guitar and "
Wrecking Crew" session musicians
Hal Blaine on
drums and
Larry Knechtel on
bass guitar. McGuire's vocal track was not intended to be the final version, but a copy of the rough mix "leaked" out to a
disc jockey, who began playing it. The song was an instant hit, and as a result the more polished vocal track was never recorded. McGuire recalled in later years that "Eve of Destruction" had been recorded in one take on a Tuesday morning, with him reading lyrics scrawled on a crumpled piece of paper. He said the following Monday morning he received a phone call from the record company at 7am telling him to turn on the radio, his song was playing. McGuire's single hit #1 on the US
Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on the
UK Singles Chart in September 1965. Sloan recalled: "Barry McGuire was the lead singer for a popular folk group at the time called
The New Christy Minstrels. [He had written and sung] his own Number 1 hit, "Green, Green". He had just left the group and was on his own and looking for material to record. He wound up at my publishing company and was told there was a quirky songwriter he might want to listen to. Barry didn't like the song "Eve of Destruction" that much. He liked a few other songs of mine better. When he was ready to record he picked four songs, and "Eve" was the fourth to be recorded if there was time. If you listen to the recording, he's rushing because of the time constraints and he was reading it for the first time off a piece of paper." When the record was released "Eve of Destruction" was the B-side.
Reception In the first week of its release the single was at No. 103 on the
Billboard charts. In August 12 Dunhill released the LP,
Eve of Destruction. It reached its peak of #37 on the
Billboard album chart during the week ending September 25. That same day the single went to #1 on the chart, and repeated the feat on the
Cashbox chart, where it had debuted at No. 30. McGuire would never again break into the top 40 of the
Billboard Hot 100. It went to #1 in
Norway for two weeks.
Chart history Weekly charts Year-end charts Controversy, parodies, and response songs In addition to its being banned in some parts of the U.S., the song was also banned by
Radio Scotland. It was however featured on
Top of the Pops on television one week while in the Top 10. Researcher Justin Brummer, founding editor of the
Vietnam War Song Project, has identified 25
answer records referring to "Eve of Destruction". A group called
The Spokesmen released "The Dawn of Correction" which became a Top 40 hit. Singer Tony Mammarella released a positive answer song titled "Eve of Tomorrow".
Johnny Sea's 1966
spoken word recording, "Day For Decision", was also a response to the song, and was a Top 40 hit. The British musician
Alan Klein included a parody of the song attacking protest singers, entitled "Age of Corruption", on his album ''Well at Least It's British''. == The Dickies version ==