French Chansons About Love and Relationships (Not What You Thought)

Just before Operation Wall Guardian, I had the opportunity to be a guest on “Radio Sol” on Ruthie Marcus’s show, which deals with songs and the stories behind them. For the sake of the show, I decided to choose a series of chansons that deal with love and relationships, but I tried my best to stay away from the familiar and clichéd and bring you mainly lesser-known songs, which usually also have some kind of interesting “twist.”

So what did we have in the plan?

• An old-fashioned love song, less familiar to Israeli audiences.
• France Gal sings in German about a computer that will find her a match.
• Adelbar (a lesser-known singer who is really worth getting to know) sings about romance in a chat
• A French love song, in hip-hop style, composed entirely of the names of cakes, which can be found in a patisserie in Paris.
• 2 songs by Serge Reggiani, one of my favorite singers who, with his warm voice, manages to touch on two difficult topics: the first is about a couple who broke up and the second is about a street prostitute.
• A happy song by Aristide Brian about the wedding funeral.
• One song by Aznavour and one by Dalida, because you can't do a program about romantic songs without bringing at least one song by each of them.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, I didn't have time to play all the songs on my list, but, unlike those who heard the program live, you will be able to enjoy them as well, and I hope you will.

Before we begin the musical journey, one last thing, due to technical reasons, I was only able to bring a video here containing my explanation of the songs, without the songs themselves. But don't worry, I've embedded YouTube videos below that contain all the songs I talked about on the show, so you won't miss a single song 🙂

The songs we talked about

Parlez Moi d'Amour: Menilmontant

The truth is, I wanted to start with a classic song that talks about love, but in a new performance.

The song Parlez Moi d'Amour (Talk to Me About Love) was written in 1930 by Jean Lenoir (1891-1976) and originally sung by the singer Lucienne Boyer (1901-1983). This song became a huge hit, was translated into English (Tell Me About Love) and was sung by many singers including Ray Charles, Barbra Streisand and others.

The performance I decided to bring to you is by the band Menilmontant. This is a young band that was formed a few years ago with the goal of reviving some of the classic chansons of the 30s and 40s. What's great about this performance is that in the first minute you hear the original version and only then do you hear the band members singing the song in a South American rhythm.

What is the song about?

The truth is that this is a romantic, not particularly sophisticated song, in which the singer asks a man she loves to talk to her about love in his voice tonight (“Talk to me about love, come back and tell me your gentle words”).

Here is the translation of the song by Nechama Krems, along with the original lyrics:

And by the way, if you're looking for another lovely version of the song, here's another one that I really liked:

However, if you thought that was the end of the song's story, you're wrong. About a year after the song was released and became a huge success, Lucien Boyer received a letter from a man who was tired of the song that was simply being played everywhere. In response, he wrote a song called Parle-moi d'autre chose (Talk to me about something else) and sent it to the singer. Lucien loved the song, composed it, and here's the result:

Casanova ou Quasimodo: Adalbert

I especially like this song and for a while it served as my ringtone 🙂

What is he doing?

It's about a guy who talks about a girl in a chat and gets turned on by her. She, in turn, plays with him and turns on other guys. He understands the rationale but is attracted to her anyway and suffers from the whole thing. She continues to play a double game with him, one moment she flatters him and he feels like Casanova, while the next moment she pours cold water on him and he feels as attractive as the hunchback fromNotre Dame...

The person who wrote the lyrics, composed and sang this cute song is a French singer named Guillaume Aldebert, born in 1973. His second album Sur place ou à emporter won an award from French Radio, and he later released a series of albums, including a children's album called Enfantillages, in which he collaborates with a long line of famous French singers.

All of his songs are characterized by humor (sometimes sarcastic) and very, very melodic music. Honestly, I have no idea why so few Israelis know him.

Der Komputer Nr 3: France Gall

France Gall (1947-2018) is undoubtedly one of the most famous French singers of the second half of the 20th century and is credited with quite a few famous songs, including Poupée de cire, poupée de son, with which she won Eurovision, and Ella, elle l'a, which became a huge hit in the XNUMXs.

Despite all this, I decided to bring you a song that France Gal sings in…German!

Why, as a Francophile, did I choose a non-French song? Because of the subject matter, of course!

The song is about Computer Number 3, who will find Frances Gal the ideal man for her. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Frances Gal managed to anticipate the advent of online dating back in the 60s!

This will be all: Java

One of the things most tourists like to do when they arrive inParis Is to take a tour of the best boulangerie and patisserie in the City of Lights (only to discover that almost every neighborhood boulangerie-patisserie you visit will be excellent).

Java is a hip-hop band from Mexico. Brittany And in this song, she decided to take the names of the most famous cakes in the world and create a love song out of them.

In this song, the vocalist enters a patisserie and turns to the saleswoman, with whom he is in love, and begins to recite a love song to her in which the names of cakes are mentioned. Here is a short sample from the song (I have marked the names of the cakes): “Together we will cross theBlack Forest, then theopera The favorite of the Viennese is Mozart).

Meanwhile, the pastry shop saleswoman doesn't really understand what the guy wants from her and thinks he's just interested in buying more cakes. How does it end in the end? In a fight and screaming to the top of his lungs...

In short, this is one of the most entertaining songs I know, and if it makes you a little hungry, don't blame me 🙂

Formi Formidable: Charles Aznavour

You Charles Aznavour There is no need to present here, certainly not his most famous poems, some of which have a romantic undertone. Although, as you have seen so far, I try to bring in less famous poems and singers, it is impossible to talk about Chansons And songs about love without mentioning Aznavour at least once.

The song I brought deals with a problem familiar to anyone who has ever fallen in love with someone who doesn't speak their language. In this case, it's about Aznavour, a French speaker, who falls in love with someone who speaks English. Throughout the song, he tries to express his love through his broken English, but does he succeed? Listen to the song and decide for yourself.

L'enterrement de belle Maman: Chanson plus biflouree

A man meets a woman, they fall in love, date each other, move in together, and get married. Then…the mother-in-law arrives! If you thought only Jews have a lot of mother-in-law jokes, then you probably haven’t heard the French…

The amusing song, which I will bring you, was originally written and sung by Aristide Bruant (1851-1925), the famous chansonnier from the poster painted by Toulouse-Lautrec.

The song itself is about the funeral of the mother-in-law, a tragic event for some and comical for others (depending on the nature of the relationship with the mother-in-law, of course). In this song, there is a dissonance between the tragic lyrics (“The family walked the funeral procession in tears,” etc.) and the very happy melody, which creates a comic effect.

I intentionally did not bring you the original performance by Aristide Briand, but a later performance by a singing group called Chanson Plus Bifluoree. This group, which reminds me a bit of our “Pale Tracker” in terms of the quality of its singing and humor, is mainly engaged in writing parodies of well-known French songs, while changing their lyrics. Here is an example of the song “Microwaves” (les micro-ondes):

And here is the original song rois du monde (Kings of the World), which originally deals with a completely different subject (it was originally written for the French musical “Romeo and Juliet”):

https://youtu.be/saxxJZCr2-k

Hotel de Voyageurs: Serge Reggiani

Serge Reggiani (1922-2004) is one of my favorite singers, so I decided to bring one of his songs that I like the most.

For those who don't know, Serge Reggiani didn't start his career as a singer, but rather as a film actor. He came to singing relatively late in his career, which was an advantage because he was able to bring quite a few of his dramatic qualities to the chansons he sang.

The poem I want to present to you is called Hôtel des voyageurs (The Hotel):

The song is about the last vacation of a couple who once loved each other and have now become enemies. The metaphors here are all taken from the world of cinema (for example: “Like in the cinema, the actors come home even if they die in the film”) and the feeling is as if we are watching a romantic and sad French film depicting the calm before the storm that will destroy the romantic relationship.

There is no doubt that this is one of Reggiani's most beautiful songs, in which the power of the lyrics rivals the beauty of the melody, and if you don't know this singer, there is no doubt that this is the song that will help you fall in love with him.

Here is the translation of the song by Nechama Krems, along with the original lyrics:

La Parisienne: Zaz

When I arrived in the capital France I wanted to become a “femme fatale.”
The problem is that I don't drink and I don't take drugs, I don't have any "scratch"
I'm too normal and it scares me.

With these words begins Marie-Paule Belle's entertaining song (La Parisienne), which became her biggest hit in 1976. The song is about a young woman who arrives in the French capital, trying to become a typical Parisian, only to discover that she is too normal to receive that title.

Will she succeed in her mission to find some kind of “scratch” that will make her a typical Parisian? For that, you will have to listen to the song until the end. However, before you do so, I must point out that I did not bring you the original performance, but a later performance by a young singer named Zaz.

In my opinion, this performance is better and more rhythmic than the original, but just to be on the safe side, I will also bring you the original performance later.

And here is the original performance by Marie-Paule Bell:

The Whore: Serge Reggiani

The truth is that I love Serge Reggiani so much that I couldn't resist bringing you another gift from him, this time on a charged topic: prostitution.

As in his previous song, here too, Serge Reggiani presents us with an accurate picture of a street prostitute standing under a lamppost in the Saint-Louis district, while the singer and his nephews watch her from the house where they live. However, while Reggiani is actually full of empathy for the woman, whose hard life has led her to work on the street, the nephews look down on her. At the end of the song, the point comes, when Reggiani says that his nephews married women who are no better than that working girl…

Il venait d'avoir Dix huit ans: Dalida

Singer Delilah became synonymous with romance French Both for her tragic love stories and her romantic songs. So it's no surprise that I decided to take one of her songs to end the article and the radio show.

The song tells of a hopeless love between an older woman (relatively) and a boy who will soon turn 18. In the song, we see how the woman is almost wildly attracted to the boy's worlds, and after a romantic night, he leaves her without any intentions, and she comes to the conclusion that this is not surprising, since she is 18 (double 2)...

By the way, if you liked this wonderful poem and are interested in learning a little more about Delida's biography (and her poems), you are invited to read Dr. Orna Lieberman's in-depth and fascinating article. Delilah Forever – The Dramatic Life of the Singer Who Became a Legend.