This should be no surprise: I often hear music in my head. This is some of the music I heard in my head in France. Now there are LOTS of songs about Paris and France generally.An American in Paris by George Gershwin. I mean, how could I not?
My Father– Judy Collins. One of the relatively few songs written by Judy. Here are the first (and also penultimate) and last verses.
My father always promised usThat we would live in FranceWe’d go boating on the SeineAnd I would learn to dance
I sail my memories of homeLike boats across the SeineAnd watch the Paris sunAs it sets in my father’s eyes again
Here are two songs by Joni Mitchell:
April in Paris. Many versions of the song, written in the early 1930s, exist. But the Count Basie version from the mid-1950s, specifically the Pop Goes the Weasal take, is stuck in my ear.
I Love Paris. Lots of versions of this classic exist. It’s the iteration by Les Negresses Vertes from the 1990 album Red Hot + Blue: A Tribute To Cole Porter. That collection “created massive media attention for AIDS relief and became the first release in a 15-album series. “
Quiche Lorraine – the B52s. I ate quiche Lorraine in a restaurant in Paris. My wife wanted me to tell her how this song went, but I can’t do B52s sufficiently.
A ringer
Kiss Me (Official Paris Version) – Sixpence None The Richer. I was not familiar with this before. My friend Steve Bissette posted it on Facebook WHILE I WAS IN FRANCE. So I MUST include it.
La Vie En Rose – Edith Piaf. I heard this in Paris! Also, a posting about Piaf is the last one in that display we saw in Roissy.
Genius In France – Weird Al. The Roissy display ends with Piaf. The placard before was Albert Schweitzer, whose death in 1965 I remember, but I didn’t know who he was until he passed. He’s the antithesis of the narrative in the Yankovic song.
Finally, the national anthem.
All You Need Is Love – The Beatles
The 1812 Overture by Tschaikovsky