Charles Trenet

We begin with the original version of a song which will be familiar to many in other interpretations.  La Mer was translated into English as Beyond the Sea and became an enduring hit for Bobby Darin.  More recently Robbie Williams recorded the song for the soundtrack of the Pixar film "Finding Nemo".  Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and George Benson and over 4,000 others have also put out versions, but nevertheless many people prefer the original version available here, as sung by its composer Charles Trenet. 

Legend has it that Trenet wrote the song on a train; one can imagine the long hours of tranquil travel inspiring the laid-back mood of the song. In fact, Trenet maintains this easy-going style throughout the other tracks of his available on this playlist!

Coin de Rue sounds on first listen to be typical French whimsy, but the gentle accordion in the first verse accompanies a fond reminiscence of gang battles!  Perhaps not quite the social conscience of Paris in the '60s, but the frankness of the subject matter is a welcome, if brief, diversion from further tales of love.  Trenet, as s true individual, continues to surprise us.

Edith Piaf

Born Edith Gassion, this legendary French singer took the French word for "sparrow" as her stage-name, and was known thereafter as "Edith Piaf".   "The Little Sparrow", as she is frequently referred to, is as Parisian as they come; legend even has it that she was born on a French street corner onto a policeman's cloak! 

Few singers can approach Piaf's ease in switching between passionate drama and laid-back charm.  As well as an unforgettable performer Paif wrote many songs, and ncluded in this playlist is La Vie en Rose, one of her most enduring pieces.  Piaf encountered problems getting the work published under her own name, so asked her good friend and fellow composer Louis "Louiguy" Guglielmi to put it out, leading to many believing that the composition was his.  Like Trenet's La Mer, the song has been given many unusual interpretations, not least by Cyndi Lauper and Grace Jones!

Another outstanding song presented here is Et Moi, a ballad to lost love suffused with an especially French combination of beauty and regret.  This continues a musical tradition dating back at the very least to Chopin!

Piaf also acted, and a recording of her in Jean Cocteau's Le Bel Indifferent is available for download on this site.

Maurice Chevalier

Maurice Chevalier began his show-business career as an acrobat, but an injury forced him to explore the greater talent of his singing and dancing.  Performing at legendary French venue the Folies Bergères provided Chevalier with his big break, and commemorates those days with his first track on the playlist.

Primarily an entertainer, Chevalier was less enamoured of the torch-song intensity of some of his compatriots.  The humour in both his songs and his movies is gently cheeky; not for nothing do we get the words "double-entendre" from France!  However his cultural heritage allowed him to maintain a sophisticated air.

Chevalier established a reputation which led to worldwide success and a series of Hollywood films, culminating with 1958's Gigi.  However, as befits a receiver of the Légion d'Honneur, he remained devoted to the country of his birth, bowing out of the limelight in 1968 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.  Chevalier was 80 at the time, but as he himself is alleged to have said, "...old age isn't so bad when you consider the alternative"!