Something stupid

Sky N. sends a guestpost. Hooray!

Some time ago, we unearthed two songs by Canadian actress Joanna Shimkus (Les Aventuriers), one of the most devastating brunettes ever to grace the silver screen. Here’s a third tune: the French version of Something Stupid, written and first recorded by Carson & Gaile in early 1967 and covered by various artists in the following months (among them Ray Conniff, Jackie Mittoo with a reggae fairground rape ripoff that must be heard to be believed, Siw Malmkwist, and Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell), before it was immortalized by Nancy Sinatra and her blue-eyed daddy in September of the same year.
Joanna’s partner in crime was Sacha Distel, nephew of Ray Ventura and a first class jazz guitarist who played with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Barney Kessel or Louis Armstrong (see here), but soon chose to become the French Andy Williams – a jack-of-all-trades doing chanson, bossa, mambo and la-la-la clapalong ditties resulting in a string of hits pretty much unrivaled in French pop history. Living the St. Tropez life of ease, he also was a dedicated ladies man famous for his liaisons with Juliette Greco, Jeanne Moreau, and Brigitte Bardot. With the latter, he recorded a cash-in cover version of Stevie Wonder’s You’re the Sunshine of my Life (1973) – deconstructing a love ballad into an ashes-of-the-morning swan song. While Brigitte’s voice still breathes the perfume of velvet sheets, Sacha sounds fed-up of them stupid words ... forever.

(UPDATE: apparently I f*cked things up. Now Carson & Gaile, and Marvin & Tammi are uploaded)

Carson & Gaile - Something Stupid
Jackie Mittoo - Something Stupid
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - Something Stupid
Sacha Distel & Joanna Shimkus - Ces mots stupides

Sacha Distel & Brigitte Bardot, Tu es le soleil de ma vie