Youn Sun Nah
On her brand new seventh album Same Girl, South Korean jazz singer Youn Sun Nah covers Rodgers/ Hammerstein, Randy Newman, Metallica, and My Name is Carnival by Jackson C. Frank, the legendary white bluesman with the saddest life story you might ever read. She also interpretes La chanson d’Hélène, originally written by Philippe Sarde and Jean-Loup Dabadie for the movie Les choses de la vie, and does a remarkable job. A daring one as well, since it’s surely impossible to capture the magic Romy Schneider created with her vocals forty years ago. The male talking part, done by Michel Piccoli on the original recording, went to French romancier, musicien and plasticien Roland Brival, whose last, quite intriguing album Vol de Nuit could be described as kind of a missing link between Arthur H. and a 50s St. Germain jazz nightclub.
Youn Sun Nah/ Roland Brival – La chanson d’Hélène
Romy Schneider/ Michel Piccoli – La chanson d’Hélène
EXTRA:
FS reader Teyo d’Unux brought a sweet English language version of the chanson to our attention, the Dreammakers’ Helen’s Song. And since he labeled it a perfect tune for autumn:
Dreammakers – Helen’s Song
EVEN MORE:
Francoiz Breut – La chanson d’Hélène
Berry – La chanson d’Hélène
Get Well Soon – La chanson d’Hélène
Marina Celeste – La chanson d’Hélène
Err, all versions are up now, Taylor
this is wonderful! post the breut and berry please. I’m getting the Youn Sun Nah for my folks – my dad US amb to S. Korea and now is the COB of teh Korea Society in NYC.
I ordered the best song from the Brival album to post it here, but couldn’t open the downloaded file. 89 cents down the drain ;-(
I just ordered this album. This is a lovely version.
Versions by Francoiz Breut and Berry are great too (they’ve been posted here in the past). Should I re-up them? Will look for Helen’s Song too
Another moving version of the song was made in the early eighties by The Dream Makers. This time in english!
It appeared on several compilations on Les Disques du Crépuscule as Helen’s Song. A perfect tune for automn.
Nice! This is one of my favourite songs to cry to.