Lucienne Delyle was a French singer with a particularly sweet voice who sadly died at the age of 45 in 1962. One of her biggest hits was this 1953 classic "Le Tango Des Jours Heureux", written by Michael Harden. There's nothing nicer, on a wet day, than leafing through old, slightly tatty, French sheet music from the 1930s, '40s and '50s - which is what I was doing recently - and picking out something to arrange, play and record. Looking at the sheet music, it has the words "Rote Rosen, Rote Lippen, Roter Wein", which is German for "Red Roses, Red Lips, Red Wein" - so it appears that the original may have been a German tango. The plot thickens... Anyway, I'm playing this on the tenor guitar in the written key of Bb, with backing on acoustic guitar and acoustic bass guitar.
Such a pretty song... well done!
It certainly is a German song. Michael Harden was a pseudonym of the songwriter Franz-Leo Andries and his song "Rote Rosen, rote Lippen, roter Wein" was a 1953 No. 1 hit for the schlager singer René Carol -- indeed the very first ever gold disc issued by the German record industry for 500,000 single sales. Here is Carol's original: It was such a big hit that it was made into a movie the same year, which is on Youtube in its entirety. I should say that for most people of my generation (I suspect Bertram and Manfred will feel similarly), this particular type of schlager music has so many negative connotations that I find it hard to tolerate in anything other than minute doses. As can be expected for such a big hit, the song has since been covered by just about all of the cheesiest German singers. None of this detracts from the fact that it's a pretty melody when performed in a more tasteful way than the typical schlager or Volksmusik arrangements, such as in Will's instrumental take. Martin
Fascinating stuff, Martin - thanks for all the info on this song. The French version sung by Lucienne Delyle - with French words which bear no relation to the German title - is very sweet. I've never heard the German original. ------------- Hmmm... just listened to a few seconds of the German original - pretty sickly and totally different in feeling and tempo from the Delyle version, which sounds more like a song by Edith Piaf then anything German.
A beautiful song played beautifully by you Will. I hope you will put the tabs up on your site. Gary
Sure Gary - over the next day or two.
Hi Gary, as promised I've put the music, tab and chords for this up on my website at: http://www.mjra.net/WillFly/Le%20Tan...%20Heureux.pdf
Very nicely done, Will
Thanks Eddie and others - greatly appreciated.
