More Cole Porter, from KISS ME KATE, there’s a French verse in the original version of ‘Always True to You Darling, in My Fashion’:
Mr. Harris, plutocrat,
Likes to give my cheek a pat,
If the Harris pat means a Paris hat, bebe! Ooh la la!
Mais je suis tojour fidele, darling, in my fashion,
Mais je suis toujour fidele,
Darling, in my way!
There is a great CD by “AIR” title Moon Safari. Many French lyrics in it.
Also, there is a Radiohead B-side, “A Reminder” that has some French voices (from a subway it sounds like?) in the background. Not sure that constitues “lyrics” though . . .
Did you get a chance to check out Mountain yet? If you haven’t – I’ll once again strongly recommend you do. You’ll no doubt have a difficult time understanding Leslie West’s vocals, but that’s what internet lyrics sites are for.
I guess a response that’s a couple of weeks late is better than no response at all.
Well, after I date someone a few times and get an idea of the type of music they might like, if I like them I’ll burn them a CD.
Even though music wasn’t discussed on our 1st date, one of the people I’m seeing had said to me, “I’d love to have a cute guy teach me French.” My only response was, “I ain’t all that cute and I only know German as well as the average toddler.”
But that got me thinking, what if I could put together an 80 minute CD of songs with French themes and lyrics – something titled Into to French.
With a combination of ideas I got here, a little more thought on my part and one or two from this old thread, here’s what I came up with. It actually turned into a 2 disc set – with some ‘filler’. Song’s recommended that I didn’t include where either (1) not in my collection, or (2) music I don’t like.
Intro to French – Pre-101
BONZO DOG DOO-DAH BAND Big Shot
CHUCK BERRY You Never Can Tell / Jack Rabbit Slim’s Intro
THE DOORS L’America
WARREN ZEVON Laissez-Moi Tranquille
THE GRATEFUL DEAD France
JIMMY BUFFET He Went To Paris
DIRE STRAITS Les Boys
BLUR To the End
LEONARD COHEN The Partisan
R E M Talk About the Passion
JONI MITCHELL Free Man In Paris
SWEET Lettres D’Amour
DAVID JOHANSEN Frenchette
VELVET UNDERGROUND Femme Fatale
RADIOHEAD A Reminder
BRIAN FERRY Bete Noir
ERASURE Oh L’Amour
BLONDIE Denis
BERLIN The Metro
BUTTHOLE SURFERS The Shame of Life
LaBELLE Lady Marmelade (Voulez-Vous Coucher Avec Moi)
STEREOLAB Transporte Sans Bouger
CONCRETE BLOND Les Coeurs Jumeaux
SAINT ENTIENNE Radio Entienne / Only Love Can Break Your Heart
THE POLICE J’Aurais Toujours Faim De Toil (Hungry For You)
PETER GABRIEL Games Without Frontiers
ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA Hold On Tight
BEN FOLD FIVE Your Redneck Past
THE WEAKERTHANS Our Retired Explorer (Michel Foucault in Paris 1961)
PLASTIC BERTRAND / THE DAMNED Ca Plane Pour Moi / Jet Boy, Jet Girl
NOFX Les Champs Elysees
AIR Sexy Boy
ENIGMA Principles of Lust (Sadeness / Love / Reprise)
TANGEREINE DREAM Force Majeure
The Cult, “Joy” from 1994’s self-titled “The Cult”.
“La beatue est dans la rue”.
Lady Marmalaude - by Patty LaBelle, later by Mya, Pink, Lil Kim and Christina Aguilara for the Moulin Rouge Soundtrack.
Does this count? The entire song is in French (as with almost all of Serge Gainsbourg’s work).
The Talking Heads spinoff group Tom Tom Club recorded “L’Elephant” in 1981, with all-French lyrics (and elephant-like noises from a guitar).
Although King Crimson did the elephant noises thing to much greater effect the preceding year, in “Elephant Talk”.
In regards to the NOFX version of Champs Elysee, I actually prefer Joe Dassin’s original.
And my suggestion is anything by Joe Dassin cause he’s French and all, but especially “Salut les Amoureux”, which is set to the same music as Arlo Guthrie’s “City of New Orleans”.
I did buy a CD called “Super Hits” off of <large internet bookseller>. Less than $10 including shipping. Haven’t had a chance to listen yet. Interstingly, I had them placed in the wrong musical era, from the sound of MQ, I had them placed more mid-to-late 70’s.
How did the CD go over?
I’m not familiar with the Dylan song, but no one’s mentioned “Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup” by Nat King Cole (and possibly others). It’s about half in French.
“Ritual - Nous Sommes du Soleil” by Yes. Although this is the only line of French in the song, but it gets repeated a lot.
well, heck. am i the only oldster who remembers Janice Joplin (i think, or whichever female vocalist) who did “Look What They’ve Done to My Song”?
Ils ont changez ma chason, Ma
Ils ont changez ma chason, Ma
Eh, ca cette imperfect
Et ce ne pas bon, ma
Ils ont changez ma chason
[massive apologies for any possible spelling atrocities. it’s been several decades since my last French class, and i can’t find my old French/English dictionary.]
Here’s my entry:
“Ritual (Nous Sommes du Soleil)”
from Tales from Topographic Oceans
by Yes
lachesis, that was Melanie who sang
“Ils ont changé ma chanson, ma”
You know, the old passé composé.