Sunday, August 26, 2007

Summer Disco: rounding out the French weekend with music

This is a double feature, in honor of I'm not sure what. Perhaps my two posts on France?

Both of these songs are sung by Charles Trenet (1913-2001) and both date from the 1940s, though they have been recorded many times since by many artists in many languages, especially the second.

The first is a lovely one called "Que reste-t-il de nos amours?" ("What remains of our love?" The French put the word "amour" in the plural sometimes.) This is major nostalgia for French folks of a certain age. There is a well-known movie by Truffaut, "Baisers Volés" ("stolen kisses") whose title is taken from this song, though the expression way predates the song, of course. The song, in a new version, was the theme music for the movie.

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And this one is a really old, old song. You've probably heard several U.S. American versions of it, including Bobby Darin's rendition and a recent obnoxious cruise line commercial, but THIS (says she, drawing herself up in full snob mode) is the original, sung by Charles Trenet. The song was still around when I was a little girl, though we thought of it as "old folks' music." But we knew it.

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This is not disco. Or rock 'n roll.

2 comments:

June Butler said...

He's the best, Jane, no argument from me. Thanks.

PeaceBang said...

girl, you need to get a mog (music blog).
www.mog.com/peacebang