La vie en rose (song)

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Édith Piaf (1951)

La vie en rose (French for “Life in Pink”, in free translation “Life through rose-colored glasses ”) is a chanson written in 1945 by the French singer Édith Piaf with a melody by the composer Louiguy (Louis Guglielmi).

History of origin

Édith Piaf had been in the recording studio for the first time in October 1935 , since then he had sung without exception foreign compositions and therefore came up with the idea of ​​writing a song himself in the course of 1944. In 1945 she presented her first idea to her pianist and arranger Marguerite Monnot , who reacted skeptically. Piaf's friend and chansonette Marianne Michel, on the other hand, was thrilled when the two sat in a café on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in May 1945 and Piaf performed their song. Michel changed the text and title slightly and “les choses” (things) became “la vie” (life). There was a cabaret called La vie en rosewhere Piaf performed in the spring of 1943.

The text describes the feelings of a person in love who is close to their lover and therefore happy. Quote: “If he takes me in his arms, if he speaks to me softly, then I'm in seventh heaven.” Piaf asked the film composer Louis Guglielmi (1916–1991) to write a melody for the text, and Michel took it Song in May 1945. On November 5, 1945 the composition was registered with the French collecting society SACEM for Louis Guglielmi (called Marcel Louiguy; music) and Piaf under her real name Édith Giovanna Gassion (text).

Piaf version

Edith Piaf - La vie en rose (French version)

Piaf first sang her work about a clichéd glorification of love on stage in 1946. In the Paris recording studio Pathé-Marconi she did not appear until January 4, 1947 to record La vie en rose with the B-side Un refrain courait dans la rue with an orchestra under the direction of conductor Guy Luypaerts. The record was released in February 1947 on the French branch of Columbia Records (DF 3152) in France.

On October 30, 1947, Piaf began a US tour with 44 appearances in the New York Playhouse, where she presented eight songs - including La vie en rose , which has not yet been released in the United States . In the United States, Piaf succeeded in popularizing this typical French chanson by also recording an English-language version. She also sang it in the French film Neuf garçons, un cœur (Nine Boys, One Heart), which was released in 1948. Her LP Chansons Parisiennes (Columbia FL 9501), released in 1949, contained the title as the first track.

Werner Schmah - Please don't look at me like that

It was not until August 1950 that the version sung in English by Piaf (with lyrics by Mack David ) and the B-side The Three Bells (Columbia 38948) appeared. The music magazine Billboard considered Piaf's attempts to sing the song in English to be "catastrophic" in a review. Regardless of this, the English version made it onto the American pop charts in October 1950 , where it was ranked 23rd highest. This hit record should not hide its success, as the single sold one million in the United States and three million worldwide .

Other versions

The chanson has been translated into at least twelve languages; the second foreign language version was La vita è rosa by Nilla Pizzi in 1948 . Hans Doll and Ralph Maria Siegel translated the chanson under the title Don't look at me like that and did not stick to the original for the rest of the text. In total there were at least 28 versions in German, including Werner Schmah with Walter Dobschinski and the Berlin Starband (1948), Lale Andersen , Detlev Lais and Ursula Maury (all 1949) and the Horst Winter Orchestra (1950). Marlene Dietrichsang the song in French in the Alfred Hitchcock film Die Rote Lola . The title is used in at least 32 movies.

It wasn't until 1950 that the song began its triumphal march in the United States. Louis Armstrong with Earl Hines (piano) recorded another French version (rank 28). This was followed by Bing Crosby (13th) and Tony Martin (9th). Audrey Hepburn sang the song fragmentarily in Billy Wilder's movie Sabrina .

Caterina Valente took up look me like that in 1963 in Berlin, Dalida took up the French version in 1967, Milva took up the Italian one in 1970. Mireille Mathieu again sang the French version (1976), Nana Mouskouri the German title Schau mich nicht so (1976). In 1977 Grace Jones brought out a disco version. In 1993 Donna Summer sang a version on a tribute album to the Piaf (Tribute to Edith Piaf) . In 2013 Andrea Bocelli released a duet with samples on the LP Passioneby Piaf's original voice, Yves Montand sang the piece in the film Paris, je t'aime , which was presented in Cannes in 2006 . In 2007 the film La vie en rose starring Marion Cotillard as Piaf was shown at the Berlin Film Festival , for which she received the Golden Globe Award and the Oscar in 2008 . Henry König has put together a list of 128 cover versions.

The original chanson has found supporters across all styles, because jazz musicians and interpreters such as Toots Thielemans , Sophie Milman , Dee Dee Bridgewater and Diana Krall played and sang the piece, as did pop stars such as Cyndi Lauper or Belinda Carlisle and interpreters such as Bette Midler or Vince Hill ( Take me to your heart again) or instrumentalists like André Rieu . British music journalist Kat Lister characterized the song's popularity with a historical reference: For younger French people, La vie en rose ishas become almost something of an alternative Marseillaise .

More cover versions

Used as film score in films

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Kai Sichtermann , Kultsongs & Evergreens , chapter “La vie en rose”, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86964-029-7 , p. 169
  2. ↑ Édith Piaf / Nina Rootes / Andrée Masoin de Virton, The Wheel of Fortune , 2004, p. 59
  3. ↑ Carolyn Burke, No Regrets: The Life of Édith Piaf , 2011, p. 89
  4. ↑ Angie Olbrich: The icon of the French chanson. In: Kai Sichtermann (ed.): Kultsongs & evergreens. 50 songs and their story. Parthas Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86964-029-7 , pp. 167-172
  5. ↑ James M. Salem, A Guide to Critical Reviews , Part 2, 1984, p. 165
  6. ↑ Carolyn Burke, No Regrets: The Life of Édith Piaf , 2011, p. 118
  7. ↑ Billboard Magazine, September 16, 1950, Record Reviews , p. 100
  8. ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 65
  9. ↑ Henry König from March 24, 2012, overview of La vie en rose ( Memento from March 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ↑ Robert Dimery (ed.): 1001 Songs You Should Hear Before Life Is Over . Edition Olms, Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-283-01153-6 , p. 40