The Second Life of Songs
Language workers conventionally distinguish translation, interpretation and adaptation. These activities are differentially appropriate for certain types of content and purpose. Translation deals with rendering written words and can range across a spectrum of approaches from literal translation to the broader capture of meaning. Interpretation is a term generally applied to rendering spoken words “on the fly” in another language to transmit meaning. It is often used either consecutively or simultaneously (with headphones) at business and political gatherings. Adaptation is a more encompassing term that includes even the re-creation of meaning within the framework of constraints like culture, technology, music, or rhyme. Adaptation may involve lyrics but also aspects of music like rhythm, harmony, and even instrumentation.
All of the songs on this website include the original French language and an English translation. The translations are mine and their purpose is to assist in understanding the original French lyrics but not to be sung by themselves. Therefore, when possible, I use English words that resemble French words since familiarity facilitates understanding. English-language “adaptations,” on the other hand, are intended to create new songs for new audiences and often entail the creation of new meaning. In effect, "adaptation" is a job for songwriters, not translators.
All of the songs on this website include the original French language and an English translation. The translations are mine and their purpose is to assist in understanding the original French lyrics but not to be sung by themselves. Therefore, when possible, I use English words that resemble French words since familiarity facilitates understanding. English-language “adaptations,” on the other hand, are intended to create new songs for new audiences and often entail the creation of new meaning. In effect, "adaptation" is a job for songwriters, not translators.
Music may be global (or not), but language and culture are local. Songs consist of both music and lyrics, the words of a song or poem. The road to wider accessibility for songs with alluring melodies is “adaptation,” or the fabrication of new lyrics and meaning in other languages. Many French “chansons” have “adapted” successfully and found a “second life” by wearing English clothes.
Lyrical adaptation is not merely a literal or even creative “translation” of words. It requires a greater plunge into the culture of the target language and its speakers. In business, the “localization” of a product (e.g. McDonalds) for foreign markets is a type of adaptation that requires insight into the practices and mores of culturally specific local markets. With French “chansons,” the goal of “adaptation” is normally to access “global” markets that have greater diversity and less cultural specificity. Therefore, successful adaptation of French “chanson” requires awareness of specific French cultural and language characteristics that don't "travel" well and may impede access to foreign or global markets. Quintessentially French artists like Georges Brassens remain blissfully endemic to France, bless their souls and Gallic quirks.
"Adaptation" is not just a one-way street driven by access to a larger market. It is not difficult to find English-language songs that have been "adapted" into French. For example, Françoise Hardy's 1968 "Comment te dire adieu" is a lyrical reformulation by Serge Gainsbourg of Margaret Whiting's 1966 song "It Hurts to Say Goodbye." Francis Cabrel spent 10 years re-interpreting Otis Redding's 1965 song "I've been loving you too long (to stop)" before he released "Depuis Toujours" in 1999 on his album "Hors Saison."
Like all languages, French has idiosyncratic expressions, cadences and grammatical structures. When music is formulated to accommodate such formal characteristics, it is not a simple matter to take another language and squeeze it inside the same shell. Herbert Kretzmer, the famed adapter for Les Misérables, noted the:
“challenge of matching singable English phrases to a decidedly Gallic score…the French
language being so full of emphatic consonants, staccato tricks of rhythm and fading syllables at
the end of sentences which have no ready equivalent in English.”
Consequently, Kretzmer re-invented the lyrics for “Les Mis” in his own English words, not like a translator but a co-writer…an “equal among equals.” In doing so, some of his songs for "Les Mis" acquired new meaning. In fact, the entire "Les Mis" production acquired new meaning in its move from Paris in 1980 to London in 1985.
“challenge of matching singable English phrases to a decidedly Gallic score…the French
language being so full of emphatic consonants, staccato tricks of rhythm and fading syllables at
the end of sentences which have no ready equivalent in English.”
Consequently, Kretzmer re-invented the lyrics for “Les Mis” in his own English words, not like a translator but a co-writer…an “equal among equals.” In doing so, some of his songs for "Les Mis" acquired new meaning. In fact, the entire "Les Mis" production acquired new meaning in its move from Paris in 1980 to London in 1985.
This post features prominent examples of successful English language adaptations of French songs during the past 75 years. Each song title below has a link to the original French “chanson,” a bit of story about its adaptation, and a selected version of its several English interpretations by different performers. It is a particular pleasure to highlight some lesser-known names like Eva Cassidy, Patti Dahlstrom, Charles Dumont and Herbert Kretzmer as players in the adaptation story.
This timeless classic originated with the 1940s French song “Les feuilles mortes” ("The Dead Leaves"). Its original lyrics were written by poet Jacques Prévert with music by Hungarian musician Joseph Kosma reaching back to Tchaikovsky. Johnny Mercer did the English adaptation in 1950, with subsequent interpretations by Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong and countless other performers. Eva Cassidy’s striking 1996 rendition is a favorite, as is her larger portfolio of songs.
Bobby Darin popularized this song in 1959, drawing on Jack Lawrence’s English adaptation of Charles Trenet’s 1946 classic French song “La Mer.” Lawrence had the lyrical dexterity to transform an ode of admiration for the sea into a love song for another person and Darin had the requisite stylistic pizzaz for the American market.
Claude François’ 1967 account of a dull day in the life of a couple with a failing relationship (“Comme d’habitude”) became a career-rejuvenating anthem of individualism for Frank Sinatra when Canadian Paul Anka did it “his way” with a 1969 English adaptation. It not only boosted the song, but Sinatra stayed in the saddle for another 30 years and David Bowie jumped on the wagon with his own 1971 song "Life on Mars."
In 1969 and afterward, Roy Clark, Glen Campbell, Bing Crosby, Willie Nelson and many others performed Charles Aznavour’s lament to lost youth (“Hier encore”). Herbert Kretzmer of “Les Misérables” fame wrote the English adaptation.
When Jacques Brel released “Ne me quitte pas” in 1959, he surely didn’t expect Joaquin Phoenix to be singing Rod McKuen’s 1966 English adaptation named “If You Go Away” with Lady Gaga. This happened in the 2024 movie “Joker: Folie à Deux.”
With this English adaptation by Albert Askew Beach, singers Sam Cooke, Keely Smith, Frank Sinatra, Gloria Lynne, Natalie Cole and a host of other performers gave a different spin to the end of a relationship than Charles Trenet’s original 1942 song “Que reste t’il de nos amours.”
She
In the 1999 film “Notting Hill” (starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts), Elvis Costello infuses new life and a new title ("She") to a song that Charles Aznavour and Herbert Kretzmer wrote in 1974 for a BBC television show called “The Many Faces of Women.” Aznavour released it in France as “Tous les visages de l’amour.”
Edith Piaf celebrated love in 1947 as the key to unlock the door to a “rose-colored” life. She convinced American songwriter Mack David and he wrote an English language adaptation in 1950 that opened its own door for countless new interpretations using the same French title.
Little did Véronique Sanson know when she released her breakout song “Amoureuse” in 1972 that her song would foster not one but two different English-language adaptations. Gary Osborne made this one using the same French title in 1973 that was sung by Kiki Dee.
Texas-born Patti Dahlstrom didn’t know any French in 1973, so when she heard Véronique Sanson’s melody from “Amoureuse” (see above) she wrote an English adaptation with an entirely different title and meaning that she called “Emotion.” Patti released her own version in 1973, followed by Helen Reddy’s take in 1975.
Gilbert Bécaud had a #1 hit in 1961 on French charts with his song “Et maintenant” that borrowed its repetitive rhythm ("ostinato") from Maurice Ravel's 1928 masterpiece "Bolero." Nevertheless, he needed Elvis Presley’s vocal pipes in the 1973 “Aloha from Hawaii” concert to beam Carl Sigman’s English adaptation “What Now My Love” to a global audience of 1+ billion people.
Céline Dion and French songwriter Jean-Jacques Goldman had a close professional relationship after he wrote lyrics for her entire 1994 album called “D’eux.” It became the best-selling French album of all time. Three years later, Céline borrowed the melody from Goldman’s 1987 hit “Puisque tu pars” ("Since You are Leaving") for her song “Let’s Talk About Love” and named her 1997 blockbuster album after it as well.
Painting by Douglas Davis
The song “Je ne regrette rien” in 1960 may have saved Edith Piaf’s life. It certainly saved her career while also launching that of composer Charles Dumont and rescuing the Paris Olympia music hall from financial challenges. It sat at #1 on French charts for 7 weeks and became a favorite of the French Foreign Legion following their failed 1961 insurrection against the French and Algerian governments. Not bad for a day’s work. It is known in English as "No Regrets."
Port of Amsterdam
Jacques Brel’s 1964 song "Amsterdam” had at least two English language adaptations during the 1960s, by Mort Shuman and Rod McKuen. They introduced Brel’s music to the English-speaking world. The name of the song didn’t change in its handoff from French to English, however, perhaps because no other port met the raunchy description that Brel sketched in the song. However, the musical sonority of the word itself also matched Brel's esthetic designs as he wrote from his serene perch in Provence overlooking the "Côte d'Azur."
“Les Misérables” resembles a 40-50 course “prix fixe” menu at a 3-star Michelin restaurant. It is a “sung-through” musical and too grand in scope to consider each piece in detail. We explore the overall production and 3 iconic songs from the French-language 1980 Paris premiere and the 1985 English-language "adaptation" that expedited its move across the channel to the London theater.
Jacques Brel’s 1961 song “Le Moribond” (The Dying Man) went from a satire of Belgian deathbed protocol to a global #1 hit in 1974 as “Seasons in the Sun” in the hands of little-known Canadian singer Terry Jacks. It took a 1963 makeover by American poet Rod McKuen to make that happen but by 2005 the song sank so far in public estimation that it ranked #5 on a list of “the world’s all-time worst songs” and earned Jacks a spot on the list of “one-hit wonders.”
Strategists often use “what if” questions to explore the hypothetical consequences of future situations. Eric Blau and Mort Shuman concluded the playlist of their 26-song 1968 New York musical revue “Jaques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris” with Brel’s climactic song: “If We Only Have Love…” Departees exited the theater with their heads full of songs and hope in their hearts to draw their own conclusions.
Gilbert Bécaud, Pierre Delanoë, Manny Curtis, The Everly Brothers and Willie Nelson never thought they’d be partners in making “Let It Be Me” (“Je t’appartiens”) a global hit in 1960 with hundreds of covers. But that’s how the music industry works over time and around the world.
What single French tune over the course of 250 years could be used to express both the downside of love’s remorse and the upside of love’s joy? That would be Jean-Paul-Égide Martini’s (1741–1816) tune in its successive incarnations as “Romance du chevrier,” “Plaisir d’amour” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”
Jacques Brel
Jacques Brel turns his sociological microscope and scalpel to “les vieux amants” (the old lovers), after skewering the Bourgeoisie, the Flemish, the Bigots, Those Folks (“ces gens-là”) and more with his sarcastic wit. This time, he describes the “tendre guerre” (tender war) of probes, threats, secrets, tantrums, and infidelities, not unlike WWII’s “phoney war” ("drôle de guerre"). The secret is to “grow old without becoming adult,” aided by time’s flow smoothing the rough edges of habits and expectations.
A couple walks riverside, hand-in-hand, in the nighttime drizzle. With silent determination they approach a bridge and then slip away, leaving behind both disappointments and hopes. Jacques Brel spent his career subjecting social classes and states of being to his critical eye. The Desperate Ones ("Les désespérés", 1965) goes hand-in-hand with "Chanson des vieux amants" (1966) and "Le moribond" (1961) in his inspection of "the old ones."