"[...] moving to Montréal where he became head of SODRAC, the Canadian French ASCAP/BMI (after being head of SACEM, the analogous French body) and writing many of the songs on the first five albums of — wait for it — Céline Dion! Whose albums he also produced. Take a gilgl fun a nign!"
-From a random facebook comment thread😅
Yiddishist and national treasure Michael Alpert explains the trajectory the melody took: "Renée Lebas (née Leiba) was a child of Romanian Jewish immigrants to France, as was Emil Stern, co-composer of the song. Lyrics are by Eddy Marnay, born Edmond David Bacri in Algiers in 1920, an Algerian Sephardic Jew who went on to do a ton of things in his life including writing a passel of hit songs in France, eventually falling in love with a québecoise [...]" (1/2)
Dion was covering a 1950s version by French singer Renée Lebas. It's more polished but (maybe because I grew up on Céline) I don't quite like it as much:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K682wDOdhc&ab_channel=lysgauty1collectiondisquesDavidSilvestre
Was thinking of researching and a Wikipedia article about the ubiquitous #klezmer tune Ma Yofus (מה יפית), known by many other names too and which which was basically the Hava Nagila of the 19th century. was reminded about how as a child singer Céline Dion recorded a French-language cover of this tune😆
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNGalFlzZcc&ab_channel=Parolesdemusiques
#SongTranslation #JewishMusic #CelineDion #Québec #HowBeautiful
🕵️old klezmers🎻