Great songs
deserve a French Kiss
François Godin presents:
songs from the English repertoire which received a French kiss
Adapting a song. Bringing it from one language to another without compromising it. Reinventing it without betraying it. Giving it another life, with the same force. It’s possible. It can be done.
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A great example which serves as a model for me is Frank Sinatra’s hit My Way, a wonderful adaptation of Comme d'habitude, by Claude François. My Way does not tell the same story as Comme d’habitude. And yet, in French as in English, it’s about daily struggle, resilience, and a stubborn determination to preserve what we have placed our faith in. In this adaptation, there is fidelity beyond the words; both songs share the same way of embracing the tension, the energy, the progression inscribed in the melody. The mysterious alchemy between text and music, which is the hallmark of every great song, has been recreated.
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Is it even more challenging to successfully bring a song from English into French? Étienne Daho, a big name in French music, seems to think so:
” English is a fantastic language, it offers all the support you need to sing. French remains a wonderful language, but it is very hard to write in French with Anglo-Saxon melodies in mind. Achieving a form of fluidity as if the song had always existed takes time.”
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(Interview in the magazine Les Inrocks, March 2023)
Certainly, embroidering French words onto the canvas of an Anglo-Saxon prosody sometimes felt like a real challenge to me. However, the resources of the French language are endless. And I took my time. And I gave myself the necessary liberties, allowing myself greater or lesser detours depending on the song, always careful to respect its spirit more than the letter, to restore its emotion, to finally reach the point where the song sounds as if it had originally been written in French – “as if the song had always existed”, to use Daho's beautiful expression. This very particular writing process fascinated me to the point that I created a repertoire of around fifty songs adapted from English. They come from a wide variety of inspirations and styles. The only thing they have in common is that they struck a chord with my sensitivity. They seduced me, they intrigued me. I spent time with them. Their power to fascinate remained intact. They were ripe for a French kiss.
CALLING YOU HAS BEEN FRENCH KISSED
Calling You: The song describes a dilapidated station in the middle of the desert, from which a call of love is sent out. It resonates with the hope of change, of better times experienced together.
L’air du large (the air of the open sea): giving this song a new life in French was first and foremost a matter of finding words for the vibrant call “I-I-I am calling you”. I settled on « L’air du large manque à ma vie »/“The air of the open sea is missing from my life”, the French word « large » being evocative of the vastness of the ocean, of the infinite horizon. From these words flowed the text of the verses: the love call is now sent, in French, from a deserted seaside resort, during off-season; it is carried by the powerful winds of the ocean rather than the scorching winds of the California desert. A different setting for expressing the same solitude, the same longing.
Calling You
Written by
JD Steele, Bob Telson
A desert road from Vegas to nowhere / Someplace better than where you've been / A coffee machine that needs some fixing / In a little café just around the bend
I am calling you / Can’t you hear me? / I am calling you
A hot dry wind blows right through me / The baby's crying so I can't sleep / But we both know the change is coming / Come in closer, sweet release
I am calling you / Can’t you hear me? / I am calling you
I am calling you / Can’t you hear me? / I am calling you
A desert road from Vegas to nowhere / Someplace better than where you've been / A coffee machine that needs some fixing / In a little café just around the bend
A hot dry wind blows right through me / The baby's crying so I can't sleep / But we both know the change is coming / Come in closer, sweet release
I am calling you / Can’t you hear me? / I am calling you
L’air du large
French kiss by
François Godin
Salut, je t’écris d’une station balnéaire / La plage est vide, on est hors-saison / Y a un paquebot perché sur l’horizon / Qui me fait des signes, qui m’envoie la main
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L’air du large manque à ma vie / Si tu savais comme / L’air du large manque à ma vie
Où t’as appris que c’est pas mieux ailleurs / Et qu’on n’est jamais trop prudents / Ici le vent se rit de nos peurs / On est vastes comme l’océan
L’air du large manque à ma vie / Si tu savais comme / L’air du large manque à ta vie
L’air du large manque à ma vie / Si tu savais comme / L’air du large manque à ta vie / (ajouté :) À notre vie
Salut, je t’écris d’une station balnéaire / La plage est vide, on est hors-saison / Y a un paquebot perché sur l’horizon / Qui me fait des signes, qui m’envoie la main
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Où t’as appris que c’est pas mieux ailleurs / Et qu’on n’est jamais trop prudents / Ici le vent se rit de nos peurs / On est vastes comme l’océan
L’air du large manque à ma vie / Si tu savais comme / L’air du large manque à ta vie / (ajouté :) À notre vie
Song of the Open Sea
Translation of the
French adaptation
Hey, I’m writing from a seaside resort / The beach is empty, it’s off-season / There’s a liner perched on the horizon / Sending me signals, waving at me
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I pine for the open sea / If you only knew how / I pine for the open sea
Who told you that it’s not better somewhere else? /And that you can never be too careful / Here the wind laughs at our fears / We are as vast as the ocean
I pine for the open sea / If you only knew how much / I pine for the open sea
I pine for the open sea / If only you knew how much / I pine for the open sea / (added :) Don’t you?
Hey, I’m writing from a seaside resort /The beach is empty, it’s off-season / There’s a liner perched on the horizon / Sending me signals, waving at me
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Who told you that it’s not better somewhere else? / And that you can never be too careful / Here the wind laughs at our fears / We are as vast as the ocean
I pine for the open sea / If you only knew how / I pine for the open sea / (added :) Don’t you?
François Godin lives in Montreal, Quebec.
author – theatre, stories (Leméac Editions)
translator – documentaries and animated short films
actor/singer – theatre, musicals, dubbing
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Photo credit: Shayne Laverdière
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All songs performed by Manul, accompanied on the piano by:
Chloé Dumoulin
All Is Full of Love✧ / All the Rowboats✦ / Analyse✦ / Bachelorette✧ / Beauty Above All✦ / Been a Fool✦ / Cliquot✦ / Colours✦ / I Think It’s Gonna Rain Today / In Germany Before the War / Is Anything Wrong✧ / No Surprises / Sail to the Moon✦ / Shape✦ / Show✦ / Street Spirit✦ / Talk to Me of Mendocino✦ / Untitled / Walzer Für Niemand✦ / Weird Fishes/Arpeggione✦ / Where Do You Go✧
Benoit Sarrasin
A Protest Song✦ / And No More Shall We Part✦ / At Last / Calling You✧ / Christmas Past / Come Rain or Come Shine / D’Red✦ / Feelings✦ / How Insensitive✦ / Lately✧ / Leave Me With the Monkeys✦ / Love Is Blindness✧ / My Funny Valentine✧ / Nature Boy✧ / Nude / Once I Loved / Please, please, please, Let Me Get What I Want✧ / Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars✧ / Rising✧ / Ruby’s Arms✦ / Send In the Clowns / Smile✦ / Somewhere / The Blower’s Daughter✧ / Unchained Melody / We Never Change✦
Recording and mixing : Maxime Fortin / Frédéric Desager✦ /
Thomas Vincent Loiselle-Latour ✧
English text revision : David Noël
Web designer : Michael Watts
The voice/piano demos of the French versions were recorded for the strict purpose of presenting my adaptation work. No broadcasting or public sharing on social networks, media or any other platform is authorized.
Any recording or public presentation by third parties of the songs in their French version is subject to my authorization as well as that of the rights holders of the original song.
