Jeanne Moreau

Sad but true: I have never posted this classic Jeanne Moreau song on my blog. I did post Vanessa Paradis' version, but not the original. Lucky for me, Virginia wrote a guestpost on this beautiful chanson:

Le tourbillon by Jeanne Moreau is a great, catchy song that’s easy to sing along to. I first heard the song in Jules et Jim, but by the end of the movie I had already forgotten about it because I was so struck by Moreau’s portrayal of Catherine. A few months later, I heard it again and I’ve loved it ever since. My French wasn’t that great when I heard the song, so it was nice that I didn’t have to look up too many words to understand its meaning. I like the chorus and how it changes throughout the song, especially the way it questions the characters actions at the end. Le tourbillon perfectly captures the action and tone of Jules et Jim. The song is lighthearted and playful, but also tragic because the characters remain entangled in each other’s lives and continue to hurt one another.

Jeanne Moreau - Le tourbillon

Sacha Distel

Sky wrote an addendum to this post:

Before Sacha Distel went to Planet Cheese, he was a highly versatile jazz guitar man. His teacher had been Henri Salvador who used to play with Django Reinhardt, Boris Vian, and Sacha’s uncle Ray Ventura. During the Fifties, Sacha became a household name in the Tabou in the Rue Dauphine and other clubs of the St. Germain de Près jazz scene, and from 1956-62 he was voted best guitarist in the polls of Jazz Hot magazine – seven years in a row!
Avec ces yeux-lá dates from May 1956, an accomplished bebop tune written by Michel Legrand and performed by a quintet featuring Distel, Billy Byers, Gene Di Novi, George Duvivier, and Charles Saudrais – a real all-star band for jazz aficionados. Marina, composed by Distel for the Roger Vadim segment of the 1961 omnibus movie Les sept péchés capitaux (The Seven Deadly Sins), sounds highly familiar – for good reasons. When Distel’s music publisher sold the tune to the US, it returned the following year under the title The Good Life – a huge hit for Tony Bennett, and recorded also by Bobby Darin, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan and countless other showroom giants.

Sacha Distel - Avec ces yeux-lá
Sacha Distel - Marina
Ann-Margret - The Good Life

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

Carly Sings

Two great things happened in the life of Carly Blackman, aka Carly Sings (I have posted about her before). Her first album The Glove Thief was released, sporting a great cover. Carly lives in Paris, and who did she meet there? J-C Vannier. Yes, the genius behind Melody Nelson. She asked him if he would write arrangements for her next cd, AND HE SAID YES! Amazing story, but true.
The Glove Thief is a highly recommendable album, featuring gentle (and funny) songs about love 'n life, sometimes sung just by Carly (her voice is a cross between Inara George and El Perro del Mar) and her guitar, sometimes she adds keys, flute or 'apocalyptic percussion'. Two songs are sung in a Blossom Dearie-ish French, very charming. Can't wait for that next album, but The Glove Thieve makes the waiting more bearable.

Carly Sings - Marie Galante
Carly Sings - God and the Girl

1000th post

The 1000th post on this blog, and of course it's dedicated to the music I love. First week of June, my new compilation is released. Gentils Garçons, because 'nothing makes the girls sigh like a singing French guy'. It features Renan Luce, Sammy Decoster, Benjamin Biolay, Samir Barris, Eddy(la)Gooyatsh) and a few duets: Arthur H with Feist, Liben with Stephanie Croibien and Pierre Faa with Barbara Carlotti. The latter is an exclusive track - Pierre's solo-album will be released later this year. But first there's the debutalbum by Pierre's band Peppermoon. A trio FS promoted the hell out of, and I'm glad I was asked to write the linernotes.
Thank you, visitors of Filles Sourires, for stopping by, for contributing, for loving French music. Keep on doing what you're doing, I will too.
(cd-cover was made by this guy.)

Pierre Faa & Barbara Carlotti - Encore des étoiles
Peppermoon - Après l'orage

Nouvelle Vague, Greco

Now on the NV-Myspace: Ça plane pour moi by Nouvelle Vague. From the new album that will be released in June.

I almost missed it, but Sylvester told me that Dame Juliette Gréco released a new album. Back in the day she wasn't exactly a fille fragile, she now sounds like the French counterpart of Marianne Faithfull. Some of France's best songwriters worked on Je me souviens tout, like Miossec, Brigitte Fontaine and Maxime le Forestier. But she turned to the young guns too, like Adrienne Pauly and Olivia Ruiz. The song posted here was written by ms Ruiz.

Juliette Greco - Dans ma chambre de dame

Cali & Marie Gillain

It was Isa who introduced me (us) to the gorgeous Belgian beauty Marie Gillain, and today I found out she sang some more. With French rock hero Cali, for the movie Magique. I knew the song, because C. also recorded it solo for his L'Espoir album. Singers turning into actors (and vice-versa) is pretty common in France, but that don't necessarily makes good movies. Or good albums. Haven't seen the film, but the song really benefits from Marie's voice. Or maybe I'm just as in awe with her beauty as Cali is in this video?




Cali & Marie Gillain - Je me sens belle
Cali & Marie Gillain - L'amour
UPDATE:
Audrey Tautou & Marie Gillain - Qui qua vu Coco (from the Coco avant Chanel soundtrack)