American songs with foreign lines?

Cafe Society
1

I’m trying to compile a list of songs that include at least one phrase from another language. So far, Ive come up with:

  • “Notorious” by Loverboy (“Senorita, solitaire…you’ve got a certain kind of savoire faire”)
  • “Walk Like a Man” by Rick Springfield (“I’m dreaming about la raison d’etre”)
  • “Don’t Talk to Strangers” by Rick Springfield (“fais l’amour avec moi,” “viens dormir, mon amour,” “je t’aime donne moi ton coeur ce soir”)

I’ll also allow La Bamba and 99 Luftballons, as each was released on American radio, despite being ONLY in Spanish and German, respectively (and yes, I am aware that there was a translated version of *99 Luftballons. I treat it like Highlander fans treat Highlander 2).

What others am I missing?

2

Lady Marmalade - “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi c’est soir?”

I think I spelled that right.

Oh L’Amour by Erasure, although the French is more like two half lines spread over two lines.

3

Don’t know the artist or actual title, but there’s a song with a repeated line that goes Soy un perdedor, I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me…

4

That would be “Loser” by Beck. I’d forgotten about that.

Good call.

5

Beck - “Loser”

The bridge to the Talking Heads song “Psycho Killer” is in French:

Ce que j’ai fais, ce soir la
Ce qu’elle a dit, ce soir la
Realisant mon espoir
Je me lance, vers la gloire

Also, the chorus contains the line “Qu’est-ce que c’est.”

6

“Michelle” (French) and “The Sun King” (Italian or Spanish) by the Beatles

“Te o Toriatte” (Japanese) by Queen

“Mr. Roboto” (Japanese) by Styx

“I like Chinese” (Chinese) by Monty Python

“The Hula Hula Boys” (Hawaiian, though may be fake) by Warren Zevon

And then there’s something like 95% of non-English rock songs that contain at least a few words of English.

7

The Arcade Fire. A couple of there songs contain French lyrics.

Haiti and Une Annee Sans Lumiere.

Both of these songs contain more than just a phrase in French though.

8

“J’aurai toujours faim de toi (Hungry for You)” by The Police

Goldfinger’s remake of “99 Red Balloons” switches between English and German

Many of Falco’s songs (“Rock Me, Amadeus”, “Jenny”) use both English and German

“Not Now, John” by Pink Floyd has “Excuse me, where’s the bar” in Spanish, Italian and French.

9

And I just now saw that the OP was looking for American songs, which rules out everything I’ve posted except Warren Zevon. Sorry about that.

10

“Champs Elysées” by NOFX has completely French lyrics. Does that count?

11

“Talk About The Passion” by R.E.M. contains the line, “Combien du temps?”

12

So close. Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir

“Your Redneck Past” by Ben Folds Five contains the lines:
Désolé, je suis américain
…
Désolé, je ne parle pas français
“Complainte de la butte” by Rufus Wainwright is in French and English

13

Stolen from the Stupid Rock & Roll Lyrics thread:

I am a little confused by the “American” requirement here. If you’re going strictly American artists, then you’d have to eliminate “99 Luftballoons” by Nena, a German, proposed by the OP. Of course, if you include anything released in America, you could also include everything by Rammstein. And The Macarena. And Lambada.

Sublight, Styx is also American, so you’re OK there. I wanted to add The Police too, but as you’ve conceded, they’re Brits.

Nonetheless, I’ll mention “Ritual” by Yes, for the repeated line and subtitle Nous sommes du Soleil. They’re Brits, too, but they’re based in California now, so maybe we have a loophole.

14

Here are the complete lyrics for “Complainte de la butte”

“Retour à Vega” by the Stills is completely in French

(By the way, the lyrics for both of those songs lack the proper accents on certain letters.)

“One Week” by the Barenaked Ladies contains the line:
We’re dans la maison

15

Billy Joel had a song called “You are the One” which had a really horribly pretentious verse in French.

But the best all-time crap use of French in an American song has to be “Rapture” by Blondie. Not only did she try to rap (in 1980, when barely anybody anybody had ever heard of rap,) she tried to rap in French.

If you’ve never heard this song… well, you’re pretty lucky. But you should still check it out, just for the cringe factor.

16

“Eyes Without a Face” by Billy Idol has a line of French…but was he British? I forget!

17

“The Legionnaire’s Lament” by the Decemberists:
Lacking my joie de vivre

“Darts of Pleasure” by Franz Ferdinand:
Ich heiße Superfantastisch
Ich trinke Schampus mit Lachsfisch

“Rebel Prince” by Rufus Wainwright

18

He sings Les Yeux sans visage, which is the French translation of “eyes without a face” (it’s also the name of a French new wave film).

19

Bobby Vinton’s “Melody of Love” contains several lines in Polish.

20

Amazed to find I’m the first to suggest Psycho Killer by Talking Heads:

Ce que j’ai fait, ce soir la
Ce qu’elle a dit, ce soir la
Realisant, mon espoir
Je me lance vers la gloire

(That which I did that evening,
that which she said that evening
realizing my hopes
I rush out after the glory)

There’s also La Bamba of course, Ritchie Valens.

Here 's a link to more songs with non-English lyrics, not all are US though.