Gee, Happy Valentine's Day. Why are we featuring such a bummer-titled song?
Because this song - the one you see below - is a cover of a song that came in 4th in the 1967 Eurovision competition. This cover by Paul Mauriat - an orchestral easy-listening version of a song that no one in the United States really knew - ended up topping the US Pop Charts for two weeks.
This remains the most popular Eurovision song to ever appear on the US Pop Charts.
I kind of love how the kids try to dance to this on American Bandstand. It's really not a song that fits that show, but it was a huge, HUGE hit.
The original was performed by an artist named Vicky (Leandros) at the 1967 Eurovision competition. This Greek singer - 17 at the time - represented Luxenbourg. How that works is beyond me - but I don't make the Eurovision rules.
Anyway, the song came in 4th.
She would go on to record the song in several languages, including English. In my opinion, not as good as the French, it is still a beautiful song.
She also recorded it in Dutch.
Luxembourg still loves her song, by the way. Here she is performing a multilingual version on their annual song competition in 2024!
Riding the wave of "Love Is Blue" fever, A/C superstar, Franco-American singer, wife of Andy Williams, and later convicted killer Claudine Longet (it was negligent homicide) recorded a version that did, indeed, hit the US Pop Charts. It would be her highest charting pop hit in the United States.
It's a pretty version.
The song hit the charts a couple of additional times. In 1968, Manny Kellem, His Orchestra and Chorus, brought it all the way to #96 on the US Pop Charts, although it was a huge adult contemporary radio hit.
Again, it's pretty. Again, it was Manny's only Hot 100 appearance.
Al Martino's version hit #57 in 1968.
It was by no means his biggest hit on the Hot 100, but it was a hit, and despite its different feel than the others, included the classic harpsichord riff.
Weirdly, so did Jeff Beck's version, which was more guitar-driven but didn't forget the most famous harpichord riff in music history.
This was not a US hit, but it was a hit in the UK and Ireland.
This version by Kim Kwang Suk is definitely a first for this blog.
First North Korean version.
Seriously. NORTH Korean. And French.
But we come back to that big hit - the one that made it a worldwide sensation.... the second biggest instrumental hit song of all time ("Theme From 'A Summer Place'" to answer your inevitable question).
It is a work of absolute art. Paul Mauriat took a great song and made it so much better.
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