He Went to Paris Again in French
The twenty all-time songs about Paris
Gearing up for a trip to the City of Light? Get in the mood with our run-downward of the absolute best songs virtually Paris
Paris has been a become-to subject for artists of all stripes, across every medium for generations – just check out these films where the Urban center of Low-cal very much gets top billing. So it'due south no surprise in that location take been so many thousands of pop and jazz songs written almost the French uppercase, also. From cornball and subversive locals who capture the real essence of life in this miraculous city to wide-eyed foreign visitors riffing about what information technology is that makes it such a magnet for outsiders, these are the absolute best songs near Paris co-ordinate to us. Bonne écoute!
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Best songs about Paris
20. 'La Bohème' – Charles Aznavour
Kickoff recorded in 1965, this classic of the chanson genre is both a tribute to the Armenian-French vocalist's upbringing in Montmartre and a lament to the changing confront of his dear neighbourhood. Aznavour's signature song – which would go an international hitting, thanks to Italian, Castilian, English and German re-recordings – is an farewell to the long-gone days of real, villagey, maverick Montmartre. In it, he remembers a hungry yet contented childhood spent toiling abroad at artworks in this northern surface area of Paris, which has today, in parts, become a victim of its own success. Although it has nil on the original, also check out this 9-minute rework from Chilean composer-producer Nicolas Jaar, which does a decent chore of transposing Aznavour'southward nostalgia and melancholy to the dance floor.
nineteen. 'Give Paris One More Hazard' – Jonathan Richman
'The home of Piaf and Charles Aznavour must accept done something right,' chants legendary singer-songwriter Jonathan Richman in this typically broad-eyed ode to the City of Love and the pioneering chanteurs and chanteuses it gave the states. 'And if y'all uncertainty that Paris was made for beloved,' he muses in the refrain, 'give Paris one more run a risk.' A pivotal turning point in Richman's impressive and prolific career, 1983 album 'Jonathan Sings!' was the musician's outset solo outing subsequently he effectively ditched proto-punk outfit the Modern Lovers in 1979, and this stripped-dorsum tribute is its centrepiece. Haters will say it's overly simple and naïve, fans will call information technology rock 'northward' roll songwriting at its best.
18. 'Paris Sous les Bombes' – Suprême NTM
The hip-hop duo comprising JoeyStarr and Kool Shen – who some consider the godfathers of French rap – showed real signs of genius on their tertiary album, the provocatively titled 'Paris Sous les Bombes' ('bombes' being a reference to the Droplets cans used past the duo's graffiti artist friends). Notorious for rubbing the authorities upwardly the wrong way, the ii rappers tackle gang life in the Seine-Saint-Denis banlieues. On the title track, they reminisce about adrenaline-fuelled nights spent spray-painting their neighbourhood walls, with enough of shout-outs to graffiti gangs like the Funky COP and the 93 coiffure. Working in an ingenious sample of Eric B and Rakim'south 'My Melody', renowned hip-hop producer Lucien lays downwards a sinister, infectious funk of a beat, while Starr and Shen fire creepy whispered rhymes over the tiptop.
17. 'J'ai Deux Amours' – Josephine Baker
In what has go a pseudo-anthem for the American expat in Paris, 'J'ai Deux Amours' plays on Josephine Baker's dual condition every bit both foreigner and adopted resident of the capital. Celebrating her two cultural loves (the literal translation of the title is 'I take two loves'), the lyrics from Géo Koger and Henri Varna may also serve – some take suggested – as a metaphor for Bakery'south bisexuality, which was subject to much attention during her pre-WWII heyday. During the war, the singer/dancer/cabaret artist retrained every bit a counter-espionage agent, before working for the Croix-Rouge and later in intelligence for the Résistance movement. By 1945, she'd very much distanced herself from her native USA, to such an extent that she would eventually change the second poesy of the refrain from 'J'ai deux amours, mon pays et Paris' ('I have two loves, my country and Paris') to 'J'ai deux amours, monday pays, c'est Paris' ('I have two loves, my country is Paris').
16. 'Under the Bridges of Paris' – Eartha Kitt
Vincent Cotto and Jean Rodor wrote the original 'Sous les Ponts de Paris' way back in 1913, but the song only actually came into its own when English verses were added by lyricist Dorcas Cochran iv decades later. Although recordings were subsequently taped with the likes of Dean Martin and Vera Lynn (among others), it'south Eartha Kitt's exquisitely recorded version that actually stands out. Set to a backing of squeeze box-mimicking orchestral flourishes and a swaying plant nursery-rhyme lilt, Kitt'due south quirky withal soulful voice is at its most hitting. Lyrically, couplets like 'How would you like to exist / downwards past the Seine with me' are timeless, and have no doubt inspired endless existent-life lovers to head to the quais.
15. 'Paris is Called-for' – St. Vincent
In 2006, American musician Annie Clark was busy leading a double life as touring guitarist extraordinaire for the likes of Sufjan Stevens and the Polyphonic Spree and as mysterious solo artist under the moniker St. Vincent, making nighttime indie-pop out of her bedchamber on rudimentary DIY software. A good six or seven years before she became the critical fine art-rock darling and massive crossover star she is today, debut album 'Marry Me' was a dark, brave and ornately composed work that contained many of the hallmarks of her after material but that was largely overlooked at the time. At its center lies 'Paris is Burning', a downbeat waltz with a martial vibe and a dizzying array of guitar sounds that describes an underclass defection in the city – perhaps in reference to the Paris Commune of 1871. The image of such a wondrous metropolis in flames also works as a metaphor for something more relatable, similar struggling to become out of a subversive human relationship.
14. 'Identify Pigalle' – Elliott Smith
Following his lengthy 1999 world tour, the tardily, great Elliott Smith settled down in Paris for a few months. Every and then often, B-sides and 'lost songs' of Smith'south seem to announced out of nowhere – most likely stored away on personal four-rail recorders or in mysterious record label vaults – and one of the best of these forgotten demos stems from his time spent in Paris. The 9th arrondissement square at the human foot of Montmartre – the 'Place Pigalle' – provides the charming setting and the subject is a fleeting relationship he had with a French girl on this 'temporary half-holiday'. Recorded just before the release of his final and most successful album 'Figure 8', the rail is a tender, string-laden rumination on love in a foreign metropolis.
13. 'Paname' – Booba
'Je rappe so easily,' he says in a fluid Franglais. It's exactly the kind of self-aggrandising remark we've come to expect from the biggest star in gimmicky French rap, who in this song imagines himself watching over the sprawling urban center and its western suburbs. Referred to familiarly as 'Paname', Paris is Booba'southward rule, and on this rails he exalts the city, himself and his lifestyle, while likewise non forgetting to ridicule his critics. With $.25 of Standard arabic and Senegalese dropped in here and there, the greatly dark lyrics are shot through with braggadocio, comparing his menstruation to a gunshot and boasting that he'southward so rich you'd think he'southward a narco-trafficker. Simply it's not just a personal display of ability – the chorus, after all, contains a very explicit political bulletin. For him, Front end National leader Marine Le Pen represents the scourge-similar 'racaille' ('trash' or 'vermin') of the French state, which is his response to a heinous comment the political leader one time fabricated near immigrants.
12. 'I Love Paris' – Ella Fitzgerald
This straightforwardly-named songbook standard was written by famed songwriter Cole Porter in 1953 and after performed by names every bit diverse as Bing Crosby, Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Frank Sinatra. But zilch tops Ella Fitzgerald's magical take, which appears on her 1956 album 'Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook'. The vocal is as unproblematic equally homages get, with Paris merely a symbol of enduring dazzler: 'I honey Paris every moment / every moment of the year / I dear Paris, why oh why do I honey Paris / because my honey is virtually'. Fitzgerald's brilliantly produced session puts her impeccable phrasing and clarity of tone at the fore, while the between-verse large band passages are every bit sweet as they are stately.
11. 'Free Man in Paris' (Live) – Joni Mitchell
Though never mentioned by name, entertainment mogul David Geffen is the subject of this highlight from Mitchell'southward jazzy 'Court and Spark' album. A friend of hers in the early 1970s, 'free homo' Geffen was the top dog at Asylum Records at the fourth dimension and he had made his thoughts and feelings about the job perfectly articulate when the pair holidayed together in Paris. It was simply when travelling around the French capital that he felt gratuitous from the constraints and demands of his role, as Mitchell's trilling refrain describes: 'I'm a gratuitous human being in Paris / I felt unfettered and alive / there was nobody calling me up for favours / and no ane'south future to determine'. Sung from Mitchell'due south lips but from Geffen'southward perspective, many consider the song to convey a strong message of empowerment for immature women. The best version is this live rendition from the 'Shadows and Light' show, which has Jaco Pastorius doing his mesmerising jazz bass matter in the background.
10. 'Paris' – Piddling Dragon
Nobody does pitiful pop music quite similar the Swedes, and this 2014 track from Gothenburg four-slice Fiddling Dragon must surely be ane of the saddest songs always written – all the same tangentially – near the French capital. Taking the city as a hypothetical future rendezvous for a long-altitude friendship that'southward already been tragically cutting short, lead singer Yukimi Nagano tells of how Paris was the marvellous location she and her departed friend had at last decided to meet. They never would, alas, and the song is really nearly feeling alone, while moving forwards and leaving sadness behind: 'It's that time to transform / to come around, I'm changing,' sings Nagano. Information technology was on this song that her smooth and adaptable voice would really come up in its own, both in the RnB-inflected verses and the breathy, Jane Birkin-mode French interlude, in which she marvels at the vivacity of the Metropolis of Light: 'La Suède est où je vis / Mais c'est à Paris que je me sens en vie' ('I live in Sweden / but Paris is where I feel live').
9. 'Ménilmontant' – Charles Trenet
If you've never dipped into Charles Trenet's imposing dorsum catalogue of nearly 1,000 songs, 'Ménilmontant' is one of the best places to start. Rare among his contemporaries for having written about of his own material, Trenet always drew great inspiration from Paris and this song is a poignant personal homage to the north-eastern neighbourhood. Beautifully structured, wittily delivered and packed with poetic detail, he sweetly recalls thebeaux jours of his upbringing spent hopping on and off trains, at church, on the streets and enjoying live music. Arriving in 1938, a twelvemonth before he was called up to serve in the French army, these nostalgic ruminations on his 'souvenirs jamais perdus' ('memories never to be forgotten') are infused with both fondness and a creeping sense of pathos.
8. '1901' – Phoenix
It tin be hard to interpret the lyrics of Versailles band Phoenix. '1901' – a sleeper hit from 2009's breakthrough fourth album 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix' – was the song that would introduce the ring to a vast throng of new fans, and yet, frontman Thomas Mars'due south accented sing-vocal English language didn't really brand a whole deal of sense. Fortunately, the vocalizer would eventually spill the beans about the song'southward deeper meaning in a alive session, stating that '1901' was a 'fantasy almost Paris' before and during the Belle Époque – which is when he reckons the city was at its cultural and artistic zenith. Previously unclear references to 1855 (the year of France'southward first international exhibition) and a certain 'textile belfry' suddenly made much more sense. In any example, the song is an aptly bouncy tribute to the city and it would set the blueprint for Phoenix'due south now-archetype popular-rock sound: pristine production, tight arrangements and clean guitar lines that ring effectually your head for hours afterward.
7. 'Sous le Ciel de Paris' – Edith Piaf
With music written by Hubert Giraud and lyrics from Jean Dréjac, 'Sous le Ciel de Paris' is the lead song from the fiddling-known 1951 motion-picture show of the aforementioned title. First performed by Jean Bretonnière just transformed into something altogether more powerful past Edith Piaf in 1954, the vocal once again pays homage to the enduring beauty and magical fairy-tale quality of the city. In this rendition, French republic's famed national chanteuse applies her throaty Belleville twang to lines like 'Sous le ciel de paris / coule un fleuve joyeux' ('nether the sky of Paris / runs a joyous river') with such emotion and charisma yous can't but help believe her when she claims that deep downward, Parisians are 'un peuple épris de sa vieille cité' ('a people enamoured with their former city'). Piaf often sang about the hilly north-eastern alleys she grew up on, and this song – although written past someone else – overflows with similar such homey descriptions of street musicians and thoughtfulflâneurs. Information technology finishes brilliantly, with the image of a rainbow glimmering up in a higher place.
6. 'Paris 1919' – John Cale
Dorsum in 1973, following turns equally a producer for the likes of the Stooges and Nico, a couple of iffy solo albums, and having just co-founded one of the world'southward most important ever stone bands in the Velvet Cloak-and-dagger, legendary avant-gardist John Cale put out perchance the most attainable anthology of his career. Met with shamefully petty fanfare, 'Paris 1919' was the classically trained musician'due south start and but foray into sweetly melodic bizarre pop, packed full with luscious horns, strings and simple piano phrasings. In stark contrast to the upbeat feel of the arrangements, his playful, Dada-inspired lyrics were far from straightforward, with the whole album being described by many every bit a bizarre reimagining of the Paris Peace Briefing of 1919. Kicking off side B, the astonishing title track is best read as merely impressionistic, Cale's musings intended to evoke an atmosphere and non to be taken at face value.
5. 'Niggas in Paris' – Jay-Z & Kanye Due west
Not simply did it bring the phrase 'that shit cray' into popular ironic parlance, it was also the tune that cemented Kanye'southward reputation as ever-so-slightly ridiculous hip-hop great. Inspired by his luxurious travels in Paris (where he was trying to brand his name on the style scene), 'Niggas in Paris' was recorded past West with equally massive rap pal Mr Shawn Carter at the five-star Hôtel Meurice, opposite the Tuileries gardens. Over a slow, clattering drumbeat, booming sub-bass and an icy synth line, the ii rappers acknowledge the long line of African-American artists who take sought cultural acceptance in Paris (from Josephine Bakery to Nina Simone), all the while looking back at childhood friends who haven't escaped poverty. Bellows Jay-Z: 'If you escaped what I've escaped / You'd be in Paris getting fucked upwards too / Allow'southward get faded, Le Meurice for like five days'. Information technology was a foreign moment when a song so flatulent, and completely unrelated to French politics, was subsequently used in a viral video every bit part of François Hollande'southward 2012 election bid – only it clearly worked.
4. 'Le Poinçonneur des Lilas' – Serge Gainsbourg
Before the days of ugly grey machines and electromagnetic tickets, every Parisian Métro train had a ticket inspector (a 'poinçonneur'), whose solitary and repetitive chore it was to stamp holes in passengers' tickets, stuck in a dull and lightless underground limbo. In 1958, getting his career off to a typically morbid and subversive start, Serge Gainsbourg would etch and release debut unmarried 'Le Poinçonneur des Lilas', which minutely describes the dark inner workings of the chore. Describing the Métro equally a 'drôle de croisière' (a 'funny kind of prowl') and a 'cloaque' ('cesspit'), Gainsbourg'spoinçonneur explains how his daily activities are so dreary and demoralising that he even considers punching a pigsty in his own head. The provocative musician would later accept a crack at yé-yé, funk, stone and reggae, but this song is firmly rooted in the chanson tradition, with the silly, echoing chorus of 'J'fais des trous, des p'tits trous, encore des p'tits trous' ('I brand holes, footling holes, more niggling holes') totally at odds with the bleak notwithstanding consolatory message that surrounds it. In 2010, in tribute to this vivid, career-launching vocal, the ultra-mod Jardin Serge-Gainsbourg was inaugurated near the Porte des Lilas, and in 2020 a new station on the line 11 volition likewise conduct Gainsbourg's name.
3. 'April in Paris' – Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
The 1930s jazz standard 'April in Paris' first became a hitting cheers to a debut 1934 rendition past Freddy Martin, but it wasn't until its timely revival in 1952 equally the title hit for a Doris Mean solar day musical film that the vocal was properly welcomed into the jazz canon. During this period, the likes of Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk and Shirley Bassey would all give information technology a whirl, but nix compares to this tear-jerking joint interpretation by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, which appears on influential 1956 album 'Ella & Louis'. Accompanied by the reliable Oscar Peterson trio and Buddy Rich on drums, the pair flaunt perfectly complementary voices, Fitzgerald'southward buttery song a flawless friction match for Armstrong's gruff commitment and mellifluous trumpeting. Given its field of study matter and how romantically the pair appear to perform it, information technology'south no surprise the vocal is at present a staple of the Parisian jazz café.
2. 'I've Seen That Face Earlier (Libertango)' – Grace Jones
Describing i of the more than sinister aspects of Parisian nightlife (namely, the fact that the same creepy man seemingly lurks on every shady street corner), Grace Jones's signature striking 'I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)' is a chilling business relationship of the musician's time spent partying in the city. Taken from her fantastic 1981 album 'Nightclubbing', the song is a pulsing reggae twist on Astor Piazzola'southward Argentine tango classic 'Libertango', with added lyrics written by Jones and Barry Reynolds, along with wobbly Jamaican riddims from the legendary Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare. Jones'southward immaculate recording is most haunting when the singer addresses this dodgy mystery man with a series of straight French questions: 'Tu cherches quoi? À rencontrer la mort? Tu te prends pour qui? Toi aussi tu détestes la vie…' (What are you looking for? Decease? Who do you recollect y'all are? You hate life, besides…'). Now only every bit famous for its iconic music video and artwork by French designer Jean-Paul Goude, the song captures the ambiguous feel of Paris'southward '70s clubbing scene with a swell bargain of originality and flair.
1. 'L'Accordéoniste' – Edith Piaf
The Little Sparrow strikes again. This song – recorded a good fifteen years before 'Sous le Ciel de Paris', above – was composed and proposed to Piaf in 1940 past composer Michel Emer, just as he was about to go and serve in the French army. Immediately struck by the song's potent evocation of life in the city and Emer'southward clear intention to sayau revoir to all that he loves, Piaf would keep to perform the song at legendary Bobino concert hall a few days later and go far one of her first large smashes. Telling the tale of a roaming prostitute, her waltz-playing accordionist young man and their apparently hopeless dreams of reuniting subsequently the state of war, the song veers from happy to lamentable at lightning pace: at one moment Piaf declares 'que la vie sera belle' ('how beautiful life will be') on his render, at some other she states fatalistically, 'Adieux tous les beaux rêves / sa vie elle est foutue' ('Farewell to all the good dreams / her life is fucked'). In the cease, all the poor woman can do is sing and trip the light fantastic toe and forget all that's been said before. Looking at a video similar this, the way Piaf would perform then capricious a song so effortlessly – as though a natural stream of consciousness – is really quite magical.
Not enough culture for you lot?
The 50 best films prepare in Paris
Romance blooms on a Belle Époque street corner. A dark-eyed daughter in Montmartre runs her hand through a purse of dried beans. In the suburbs, Arabs foursquare upwards to skinheads. Be they arthouse hits, Nouvelle Vague masterpieces or populist comedies, these are the absolute all-time films set in Paris.
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Source: https://www.timeout.com/paris/en/music/best-paris-songs
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