Guitar,Piano,Vocal,Voice - Level 2 - Digital Download
SKU: A0.546809
By Edith Piaf. By Albert Willemetz, Jacques Charles, and Maurice Yvain. Arranged by Alpin Smart (transcription for voice and guitar). 20th Century,Blues,Film/TV,Jazz,Standards. Score. 3 pages. SmartWorks Publications #156743. Published by SmartWorks Publications (A0.546809).
The arrangement of this classic jazz/blues/cabaret song is based on the earliest (1937) of (at least?) three recordings by the late, great Billie Holliday, and is closer in feel to the original French version, as sung by cabaret and movie star, Mistinguett. Of course, the most famous version (and most closely associated with Holliday) is the one recorded by Billie in the '50s; but, I like to think that this uptempo version is a truer reflection of this great singer - in happier times - when she loved to sing uptempo jazz (she never regarded herself as a blues singer, although she could sing the blues with the best of them! And, it's important to reflect that her most famous interpretation of this song was made when she was - tragically - at death's door, and blues was better suited to her mood, and a deeply-felt despair, at this time of her all too brief, and, ultimately tragic, life). Besides, the uptempo rhythms, I feel, lend the words more of a 'Brechtian' sense of irony and impact.
