Singing in French

Music… when you move to a new country it is the music that gets
under your feet, it is the steps that take you closer to their soul, it
is the sound that helps you understand where they are coming from, it is
the essence, the lyrics, the rhythm that takes your hand and pulls you
in.

If you want to be French you gotta know Georges Brassens, Jacques Brel, Edith Piaf… some of Yann's favorite artists.


When French husband was seven he would hold the chimney broomstick as a microphone and sing, "Que Je T'aime" by Johnny Hallyday," (A French Elvis.) He told me, "I loved that song and I sang it all day long. Johnny was screaming his love for a girl…and God, it ripped my heart open every time!"
I would have loved to have met French husband when he was seven.

…. The song that reminds that man of mine, and me, of our time at the I-Beam, of how we met… Was a song from Rita. Way back then, in 1986 a French song hit the America's top ten (If not it should have!) Rita were so advanced for your time….

Music connects you to a time and place. Certain songs bring you to the dance floor of your past, of a time in your childhood, to a moment, a 'freeze frame' that comes alive when the first note hits the air… there you are like a lucid dream… taken back by music.

An old song, a silly 1960s song, that takes me back…. My memory comes alive again and again, I am a child, six, or seven I have rubber boots on and rolled up jeans, my hair is in braids. I walk into our Dairy barn, my Dad is squatting between the cows in their stalls, he is milking. The milk machines are hissing and humming, the smell is manure, hay and fresh cream, my Dad looks up and smiles at me. The radio haphazardly is sitting in the wall crook. The song Pussy Cat by Tom Jones is playing.

What song(s) define you?



Comments

28 responses to “Singing in French”

  1. Karen C

    I was 7 or 9 years old and the two daughters of our family friends were already sophisticated teenagers (so they seemed to me). While the adults were talking in the lounge room the two sisters took it in turns to dance me around the kitchen to ‘Ferry across the Mersey’ on the radio. Since then any Merseybeat music takes me back to my childhood. Later (when I was a sophisticated teenager) it became Van Morrison & Dusty Springfield and, as any Australian girl would know . . . . Billy Thorpe & John Farnham.
    100’s more but there just isn’t time to name them all now.

  2. Are “family song” is love shack by the B52’s!
    jackie
    bliss farm antiques

  3. When I was a young girl and I discovered French music for myself (not just what my parents listened to), there was Serge Reggiani’s Votre fille a vingt and et Maumariée as well as Les bonbons from Jacques Brel. I was briefly in love with Michel Sardou and Barbara as well.
    But some of the songs that define certain periods of my youth were Sugar Pie Honey Bunch and L.O.V.E by Nat king Cole and Young Turks by Rod Stewart. Even today, if I hear any of these I HAVE to dance or sing along.
    Sugar Pie Honey Bunch, you know that I love you…I can’t help myself…

  4. I am an Elvis girl through and through, so when I hear his voice, my heart skips a beat and I feel that old tingly feeling of being in love. I especially find, Are you lonesome tonight” and “I can’t help falling in love with you”, to be the ones that resonate with me the most.. I am a 50’s child and have stayed rather limited in my music tastes as I have grown older, I go back more and more to the sounds of my youth. “you are my hero” by Bette Midler is right up there as well…

  5. oh i love that Fouda fa fa song… its hilarious. my french husband and i danced to “la mer” and “come fly with me” at our wedding. thanks for asking, i enjoyed the memory…
    *

  6. I’m five or six, stocking feet, dancing on my father’s shoes, a song rolling across the worn record’s grooves, Bing Crosby crooning, along with Daddy, “Pennies from Heaven”. He told me the song was just about me and I believed him and felt I was in heaven dancing there on tippy-toes. My name was Penny and I refused to believe my cousin who tried to set me straight. In fact, more years later than I can believe have passed, as well as my daddy, but, I just know he is up there in heaven, smiling down on his Penny, crooning with Bing.

  7. Debra P.

    Corey, that last you tube post was pretty funny. I guess that’s how I imagine it’ll be for me as I try to speak French when I finally visit France. “Parlez vous francais???” NON, mais I try.
    Gotta crunch of a w/e, thanks for the laugh my friend.

  8. Ed in Willows

    It was 1970 and the song was “Hey Jude” by the Beatles……..the first time I ever slow dance with a girl. It was in the old perish hall in Willows and she was one of the prettiest girls in school. I still have a soft spot in my heart for her.

  9. Love Rita’s video. She was way ahead of the time!

  10. Will now be humming Foux Du FaFa all day. 🙂

  11. “California Girls” by the Beach Boys — what else?!?!?!?!?

  12. Denise Solsrud

    mine is moon river and over the rainbow. moon river because i had such a crush on a guy and have good thoughts of a time long ago. and over the rainbow because i so love that movie and think of how judy garland’s life ended sadly. i still tear up when i hear it. Bestest,Denise

  13. it was 1970. I was in France as an au pair in a family with three kids. Lovely family, and lovely kids. I was there to improve my French. The kids’ father was very good at singing and playing the guitar. He just loved Georges Brassens and he taught me lots of his songs. Well, at the end of the summer I came back home (in Italy) with a lot of LPs, I can still remember, bought in a FNAC store in Paris! I do love Brassens, and of course Jacques Brel! Amsterdam is a great song!

  14. I can’t think of one that defines me off the top of my head, but I do love the songs of Italian musician-composer-singer Paolo Conte, who often sings in French as well. His music is fabulous. I love so many songs I can’t pinpoint just one, but Birmingham Blues by Electric Light Orchestra and anything Beatles will always make me smile.

  15. Loved Rita!! more cowbell!!! The guy she’s playing with looks like he’s been making out for like 10 hours… My playlist: Beatles, Dave Clark Five, Hound Dog by Elvis, Ricky Nelson, Ricki Lee Jones, Fleetwood Mac, The list is endless.

  16. Lia deKoster

    Giggling and laughing..
    Fu da fafaf or something…
    I know no french..
    but the boys are New Zealanders and they go by the name
    Flight of the Concords.
    2 years ago I was very sick and for my birthday my son sent me their DVD…
    laugh, giggle and sometimes just too stupid for words.
    I love Prince…Kiss, strolling, When Doves Cry, I just love it all…lots of good naughty stuff
    I love Michael Jackson…I want to rock with you, remember the time, In the closet
    I love Madonna…mush like your Rita and of the same era.
    I love Elvis…i was a wee girl in love
    I love Pheobe Snow
    Lobo,
    ‘and my Darling who sings
    Paul Warren and plays guitar.
    Thanks for sharing
    I’m still giggling over the boys.

  17. Not any one song devines me, but I think three song fit me well. Ka sur ra sur ra by Doris Day, the California Girls by Katy Perry, and the last one is Freckle Face by Natasha Benninfield. My mom kissed Tom Jones when I was little. She had the opportunity to see him at a Casino in Lake Tahoe. We love the last song you put up. My children thought it was funny.

  18. I like the pussycat song! 😉 I like many songs. My favorites right now are Two more Lonely People by miley cyrus and Liberty Walk by her also. If i had a theme song it would have to be Billionare by Travis Mcoy. 😀 Bye Coco Love, Ree Ree

  19. Joan Tankersley

    I posted Foux du Fa Fa on my fb wall this week. I have 3 teen daughters who think I am nuts anyway for loving all things French, so this song just made them stronger in their resolve. I think it is hilarious. I have recent memories of being in Paris and making a complete idiot of myself with my language skills. So it is a little bittersweet.
    I am an Emilie Simon fan personally. Bon Nuit.

  20. How did I miss this post? Music so defines me, it touches my soul, I feel it in my belly, as they say. It stirs me inside.
    The alternative dance clubs in Chicago in 1986 played the best music. Real people knew where to dance, the fake people went everywhere else. Yes, we were music snobs and I still am, proud to say.
    When I hear The Smiths or New Order I melt and it takes me back in time.

  21. Whenever I hear Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” it takes me back to loping my horse bareback around and around the outdoor arena hand in hand with my best friend who was also riding bareback on her horse. That was the quintessential rodeo song. We were wannabe rodeo riders.

  22. After listening to the music I had an urge to hop in my blue 2CV with the two grand caniche and drive around Provence. Only two problems; I don’t live in France and don’t own a 2CV. The poodles and I are going for a walk and we will be going by some gardens with lots of lavender. Just have to imagine being in Provence.

  23. Katiebell

    I must say I am impressed you like flight of the conchords too!
    Childhood – Here’s comes the sun – the Beatles
    Teens – Blister in the Sun – the violent femmes
    Young adulthood – Nina Simone – Ne Me Quitte Pas
    unfortunately most of my fav songs are tragic
    Shinead O’Connor – this is the last day of our aquantence and stretched on your grave, and others along simular lines – hmmmmm
    something to think about, may need some more sunshine 😉

  24. I use to watch a music show conducted by Bernard Fuggers (a French man) in Ecuador. He used to play videos of Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavour and Mireille Mathieu.
    I like all types of music from rock, country, classic, latin, alternative, etc. One of my favourite bands of all times the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones.

  25. Hey, I think I was at the same dance clubs as Rhonda P in Chicago in 1986!
    I love non-cliche music that is true art with original lyrics, usually alternative in genre. Chicago’s WXRT’s new music channel on-line offers this type of music up, it is their gift to me every single day.
    Although ZZ Top’s LaGrange is my favorite song of all time. I’ve asked that it be played at my funeral (hopefully decades from now!). How appropriate – a little ditty about a brothel in Texas to commemorate my passing!

  26. Ah, music..it is like another level of knowing you and Yann. How fun. And the fact that you can appreciate the Flight of the Conchords makes me love you more. About Chelsea and Sasha…I cannot say. I have been on the other end of the goodbying…the daughter going to out of town college. I jumped off the platform of my mom and stepdad’s love and encouragement and dove into my new world with confidence and freedom. They had so well equipped me and yet because of their love home with them was still the place I came back to.

  27. Nancy from Mass

    well, when I was in my late teens and early 20’s, my song was “Goody Two Shoes” by Adam Ant. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke… but I actually love the music of the 60’s and 70’s. That music transports me back to the mountains of New Hampshire, riding in the ‘way-back’ of the station wagon, going fishing for trout and landlocked salmon. going swimming in Profile Lake (back then you could pull right up to it, park your car on the grass and swim and fish) and nights at the cottage on Winnipesaukee.
    Also, nothing beats good french songs by Emmanuel MOire and Christophe Mae just to name a few. Cherrriiiieeeee F-Memememememememem!

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