Que reste-t-il de nos amours ?
"Que reste-t-il de nos amours?" (French pronunciation: [kə ʁɛstə t‿il də noz‿amuʁ], What Remains of Our Loves?) is a French popular song, with music by Léo Chauliac and Charles Trenet and lyrics by Charles Trenet.[1][2] A version of the song with English lyrics entitled "I Wish You Love" is recognizable by the opening line "I wish you bluebirds, in the spring".
"Que reste-t-il de nos amours?" | |
---|---|
Single by Lucienne Boyer | |
B-side | "Colombe" |
Released | 1942 |
Recorded | 1942 |
Genre | Jazz, Chanson |
Length | 3:17 |
Label | Columbia Records |
Songwriter(s) | Charles Trenet |
History
This song was first recorded by the French female singer Lucienne Boyer in 1942 (78 rpm, Columbia Records: BF 68). Second recorded by the French crooner Roland Gerbeau in February 1943 (78 rpm, Polydor Records: 524.830). Charles Trenet recorded his own version in July 1943 (78 rpm Columbia Records: DF 3116).
"I Wish You Love"
The song is best known to English-speaking audiences as "I Wish You Love", with new lyrics by American composer and lyricist, Albert Askew Beach (1924- 1997): "I Wish You Love" was introduced in 1957 by Keely Smith as the title cut of her solo debut album, I Wish You Love, and was one of Smith's signature songs. Smith's debut album otherwise consisted of standards: she would recall: "[when] we sat down to select the songs [record producer] Voyle Gilmore...played a bunch of standards [then] said: 'I want to play you a really pretty French song...it won't mean nothing and you won't do it in the album but I just thought I'd play it for you' and he played 'I Wish You Love'. So, at the end of him playing all these songs...I said: 'Babe, I'll sing any 11 songs y'all want me to but I want to sing 'I Wish You Love'."[3]
Other recordings
It has since become a musical standard, with many other recordings:
- Gloria Lynne's 1963 recording for the Everest label reached No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1964 and the top ten on the Easy Listening chart,[4] and #3 on Cashbox Magazine's R&B chart (Billboard did not publish standard R&B listings during 1964).[5]
- Dalida recorded the song in 1972.
- Rony Verbiest recorded the song in 2001.
- An Italian version entitled "Che cosa resta" was recorded by Franco Battiato in 1999.
Other notable recordings
- Ronnie Aldrich
- The Artistics
- Isabelle Aubret
- Baguette Quartet
- Chet Baker
- The Bachelors
- Long John Baldry
- Michael Ball
- Shirley Bassey
- Gianni Basso
- Joe Bataan
- Alla Bayanova (in Romanian as "Ce-a Mai Rămas?")
- Vicki Benet
- Paloma Berganza
- Maria Bethânia
- Bruno Bertone
- Ray Brown
- Michael Bublé
- Ray Bryant
- Maria Amapola Cabase
- Ana Caram (in Portuguese as "Nossos Amores")
- Joyce Carr
- Liane Carroll
- Johnny Case
- Jeanne Castle
- Ray Charles
- Rosemary Clooney
- Nat King Cole
- Natalie Cole
- Harry Connick Jr.
- Chris Connor
- Russell Conway
- Sam Cooke
- Van Craven
- Bing Crosby recorded the song in 1956[6] for use on his radio show and it was subsequently included in the box set The Bing Crosby CBS Radio Recordings (1954-56) issued by Mosaic Records (catalog MD7-245) in 2009.[7]
- Bette Davis
- Joey DeFrancesco
- Tony DeSare
- Blossom Dearie
- Marlene Dietrich
- Joe Diorio
- Bill Doggett
- Arielle Dombasle
- The Drifters
- Harry "Sweets" Edison
- Diego Figueiredo & Cyrille Aimée
- Ella Fitzgerald
- The Five Jades
- Buddy Fo
- Sergio Franchi
- Vincent Franco
- Alison Fraser
- Friends of Dean Martinez
- Laura Fygi
- Judy Garland
- John Gary
- João Gilberto
- Benny Goodman
- Eydie Gorme
- Robert Goulet
- Graciela
- Buddy Greco
- Benny Green
- Grant Green
- Françoise Hardy & Alain Bashung (duet)
- Niki Haris
- Billy Hawks
- Bill Henderson
- Ian Hendrickson-Smith
- Ron Hevener
- Earl Hines
- Engelbert Humperdinck
- Willie Hutch
- Chrissie Hynde
- Jermaine Jackson
- Joni James
- Jack Jones
- Patricia Kaas
- Stacey Kent
- Rebecca Kilgore
- Kathy Kirby
- La Rondalla de Saltillo (in Spanish as "Te deseo amor", it reached number #1 in Mexico in 1969)
- Jerry Lee Lewis
- Julie London
- Dean Martin
- Nancy Martinez
- Johnny Mathis
- Chris Montez
- Mark Murphy
- Lisa Ono
- Trijntje Oosterhuis
- Rosa Passos and Henri Salvador
- Esther Phillips
- Princess in 1988
- Jonathan Richman
- Giant Sand
- George Shearing
- Frank Sinatra - It Might as Well Be Swing (1964)
- The Singers Unlimited
- The Skatalites
- Keely Smith
- Rod Stewart and Chris Botti
- Barbra Streisand
- David T. Walker
- Dionne Warwick
- Kristy White
- Barney Wilen
- Andy Williams
- Nancy Wilson
- Victor Wood
- Rachael Yamagata
- Pia Zadora
- Vero Perez
- Brazilian singer Salomé de Bahia in 2002
Use in film
The song was heard in several films:
- It was used extensively in the François Truffaut film Stolen Kisses (1968), its French title, Baisers volés, having been taken from the song's lyrics.
- The song was also used in the films "Iris" (2001), "Something's Gotta Give" (2003), and "Ces amours-là" (2010).
References
- https://mgonline.gema.de/werke/detail.do?title=QUE+RESTE-T-IL+DE+NOS+AMOURS&dbkey=1963480%5B%5D
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved January 22, 2007.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "The Mr Lucky Interview: Crazy For Keely Smith". MrLucky.com. Archived from the original on October 21, 2013. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
- Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 151.
- Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 368.
- "A Bing Crosby Discography". BING magazine. International Club Crosby. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
- "allmusic.com". allmusic.com. Retrieved October 10, 2017.