TISH! That's FRENCH! Vol. 3 - Songs En Francais!

TISH! That's French! Vol. 3

My unrelenting fascination with songs that contain passages in French, are entirely in French, or are covers of hit songs sung in French continues!

This third volume (through the fifth) contain a lot of suggestions from regular JOKONKY visitors/commenters, so thanks to everyone who suggested a track or a group (Merci pour le partage).  Bocephus went as far as to generously send me tons of great stuff—but I haven’t sorted through it all yet—so they’ll probably start popping up in Volume 6. 

Psycho Killer is simply a great way to start off any comp, in my opinion, and right on Talking Heads’ heels are one of the groups that set my fixation in motion; Les Rita Mitsouko.  Another combo that really “set the hook” was Stereolab, with their briskly hypnotic Speedy Car.

One can always count on The Stranglers, & Debbie Harry to dabble in French.  Sunday Girl was on an earlier volume, & here she sets her sights on French Kissin' In The USA.  

There are lots of French artists on this installment, from Halo Maud (who has a LOT of aliases) to Serge Gainsbourg, and of course ye ye girls galore like France Gall, Sylvie Vartan, and the queen of them all Francoise Hardy.  

As suggested by a friend of the blog, Claude Francois' Comme D'Habitude makes an appearance--which I'm told is far superior to the Paul Anka-ized reworking that became one of Frank Sinatra's signature songs: My Way.  I'll have to take his word for it.  Just because I enjoy songs in French, doesn't mean I can understand what they're singing about.  I know what I like, but I don't know what I like.

I'm entranced by Anne Issermann's minimalistic rendition of Ca Plane Pour Moi--a song that pops up on most of the volumes.  I've embedded the video below.  It's her only video on YouTube, & I can't find anything more about her online, but she claims to be the king of the divan, & I believe her.

Sonny & Cher’s C’est La Vie might offend some people of French descent because of Sonny’s unimaginative stereotyping—but I feel like it was all in fun—& I loved the song as a kid (and I'm half French).  You couldn’t escape them for a few years in the seventies, & I didn’t want to.

Bringing it all home are The Beatles, who were the first artists I was aware of who recorded versions of their songs in other languages.  Here they stir some French, & German, into an run-through of Get Back.