Thanks to Inception, I’ve been on an Edith Piaf kick and have been listening to her voice all day. Inception not only used my favorite Edith song as a musical cue/clue, it stars Marion Cotillard who won an Academy Award for playing Edith in La Vie En Rose.
I don’t speak a word of French and have no idea what most of her songs are about, but I know I’m missing out because she often wrote her own lyrics and many of them were about interesting subjects, such as poverty, life on the streets and questionable/colorful characters. Piaf died of liver cancer at age 47, a legend taken too soon.
Of course there are more, dozens more. Please post a YouTube link, if there is one, of your favorites.
This song, “Les Trois Cloches,” has been driving me crazy. I know I’ve heard an English version before in a movie and for some reason I’m thinking it was in a Western, but my brain is not cooperating with lighting a bulb, all I’m remembering are the words “cavern” and “canyon” in a rhyme. The really familiar part kicks in at about 40 seconds. Help?
I meant to add that I’ve liked Piaf for decades and knew the song immediately when it started playing in Inception. I gasped! It’s wonderful that Piaf will be introduced to an entire new generation of people via the movie. Just another reason to love it!
I’m not familiar enough with Piaf’s work to know the song, but I recognized her singing the song when I saw “Inception”.
My high school French teacher encouraged us to bring in French songs for the class. I didn’t know who Piaf was at the time. After I heard her I wished I would have known about her sooner to have brought in some of her songs. Though I didn’t even her “La Vie en Rose” (knowingly) until I was finished with my foreign language requirement … and it was the version by Grace Jones used in “Summer of Sam”.
Anyway, agreed that Piaf is wonderful. I need to see the movie with Cotillard now.
Not meaning to offend, but it’s funny how Edith’s version still sounds timeless, while that version sounds so dated because of the instrumentation. It’s a decent and interesting cover though.
OOOH! Thank you for reminding me that Grace is how I first discovered Edith. I LOVE Grace’s version and used to play it on my radio show! (here’s a very cool longer remix)
It’s not a great movie, but it is good, and it does have one of the greatest acting performances of all time. And of course great music.
Wow, THANKS! I just spent a half hour listening to various covers and finally found the one that I knew. Slim Whitman, of all people! My dad was a fan of country music and westerns so somehow I intertwined them I guess. That song was on a jukebox of a bar my parents went to (and yes, us kids hung around in back playing cards while the grownups drank and socialized, which would probably get everyone involved sent to jail nowadays). That’s how I discovered Patsy Cline too. I used to play “I Fall to Pieces” on the jukebox over and over again. I always thought of that song as “Little Jimmy Brown” and never would have equated Edith Piaf and Little Jimmy Brown. Life is weird. Long live YouTube and the Dope!
Have to chime in … rushed home to make sure that was Edith… this site was first in Google’s search results. I saw Inception right away partly because Marion was in it, and she was excellent, as always. I was thrilled when she won the Oscar for La Vie En Rose.
Ok, not much of a contribution. I just wanted to share my appreciation and enthusiasm for Marion and Edith. Also, how funny to see “Suspended in Gaffa.” I heard Running Up That Hill today while I was shopping, and Big Sky is one of my favorite songs of all time. I assume that phrase is in reference to the Kate Bush song, which is another one of her best. Now I’m going to have to go dig up her CD’s.
If I ever go to Paris I want to visit Piaf’s grave. panache45, how many family members are in the plot? I never knew there were others there.
HighVoltageBlonde, yep, it’s a Kate reference, and also a nostalgic reference to a radio show I did for several years, named after the song/lyrical concept. It was my theme song, played at the beginning of every show. It’s always nice to meet fellow Kate fans, and one who like Piaf too, cool.
I’m a HUGE Yves Montand fan, and of course she played a critical role in his rise to stardom. I love her music too.
I visited Pere Lachaise, made a beeline for Yves Montand’s grave (located next to wife Simone Signoret’s) and Jim Morrison’s. I was sure I went to find Edith Piaf’s, but I’m not remembering **panache45’s **description, so perhaps I didn’t visit it after all.
Please give a listen to Yves Montand if you haven’t already. I suggest La Vie en Rose, Autumn Leaves, Grands Boulevards, La Bicyclette, and Clementine. (I’m at work so can’t link; sorry!)
“La Vie en Rose” and “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien” were also used in Bull Durham. Annie was playing the record on her record player, and Nuke referred to her as “that crazy Mexican singer.”
She also did a version of Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots as a cover for Pat Boone’s hit in the '50’s. In English, I suspect.
About 8 years ago (when there were 15 cd stores in my town-2 now) I bought a Columbia (?) from the Vaults cd that included it on the contents list but the cd was mislabeled(!!) and had the contents of another one of the series, which I already had. So, I haven’t heard her version. Alas. I have cds with all (I think) of her songs.
HighVoltageBlonde, yep, it’s a Kate reference, and also a nostalgic reference to a radio show I did for several years, named after the song/lyrical concept. It was my theme song, played at the beginning of every show. It’s always nice to meet fellow Kate fans, and one who like Piaf too, cool.
Wait, Google search results? Wow!
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It IS nice to come across Kate fans. She’s so phenomenal, and underappreciated, in my opinion, but that’s part of what makes her so special.
“L’Homme à la moto”, 1956, is in French. I don’t see an English version listed among the 302 songs in “Toutes ses chansons” (wiki link).
More about her version in “L’Homme à la moto” (wiki page). And Pat Boone seems to have had one of less-popular versions, taking the world in a love embrace somewhere behind The Cheers, Jerry Leiber, and Vaughn Monroe.
One of the LPs my mother has, and one of the first records I identified (at first, tentatively) as “interesting stuff to listen to”, was a sort of Piaf Hits. The first song I decided I liked was Padam, Padam - I barely understood a word, but it’s one of those songs that just make your whole body go round, and round, and round… la la laa lala laaa la la laaaa, padam, padam, padam… We had a Spanish cover of Les Trois Cloches, so I also recognized that as being the same song.
My mother’s favourite at the time was La Vie en Rose, which I disliked just on grounds of hating the color pink. Eventually, I came to decipher and fall in love with the lyrics to Je ne regrette rien. That song and Piaf’s delivery have such strong emotions, and it’s great for exorcising demons.
