S1e13 : Siffler sur la colline

Pour  ce 13-ème numéro, nous allons évoquer un garçon qui cueillait des fleurs et sifflait tant qu’il pouvait en attendant sa bergère.

ÉPISODE 13 : SIFFLER SUR LA COLLINE (Joe Dassin)

You can find a summary in English below.

La pochette du 45T de Joe Dassin :

La pochette de la version originale de Riccardo del Turco :

La pochette de la version anglaise des Tremeloes :

For my Friends who don’t speak French a summary in English. I hope it can help to follow what I say :

For this 13th episode, we are going to talk about a boy who picked flowers and whistled as much as he could while waiting for his shepherdess.

– Sample of the cover the cover

Joe Dassin wrote many songs (Le chemin de Papa for himself, Bébé Requin for France Gall, Big Bisou for Carlos) and also covered a lot! It’s also likely that we will talk about some adaptations of Joe Dassin in future seasons of Ils ont Repris Ma Chanson.

In his early days, Joseph, son of the filmmaker Jules Dassin, had a little trouble becoming famous himself and it was the success of Siffler sur la Colline (Whistle on the Hill) in 1968 that allowed the singer to reach the status of « vedette » (Star), like we said at this time. Siffler sur la Colline with 300,000 copies sold is Number 2 in France. At the time of the events of May 68, the success of this song, which has nothing to do with politics, may seem paradoxical. It is possible that the mostly musical programming of the striking radios may have helped the popularity of  this lightly and « perky » song.

Although he was born in New York, he has not adapted only American or English songs. Note however that there is an English version called  Suddenly you love me  sung by the group the Tremeloes since 1967:

– Sample of the Tremeloes’ version  www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAiDkyBorm4

The Tremeloes had their main successes in the 60s including Suddenly you love me , No. 6 in England. But as I said, even if the English « Di Di Di Di » looks like Joe Dassin’s « Zaï Zaï Zaï Zaï », the original version is not English.

Let’s listen to the original version

– Sample of the original version www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDKsth_XHjs

Uno tranquillo is a song by singer-songwriter Riccardo Del Turco released in 1967. Uno tranquillo ranked 21st in Italy. Unlike Joe Dassin who, as we know, will die young of cardiac arrest, the Italian is still alive. And even musically active, he signed the song Vivo on Andrea Bocelli’s Si album in 2018.

Even if the « Woho Woho » of the French version can only be found at the end of the original version, musically Joe Dassin’s version is quite close to Riccardo Del Turco’s version. For example the zai-zai-zai-zai are already present. However, it seems to me that the French is more inspired by the English version.

About the lyrics of  the three versions have nothing in common.

The Italian text looks like this in an online translator:

 « For a calm person, a calm person like me

All or nothing, what’s the difference?

The only problem is to keep you next to me I hope

May a calm like me be enough for you. « 

The English lyrics are:

« Suddenly you love me and your arms are open wide

Suddenly there’s nothing that could tear you from my side

Everytime it happens, as I turn to walk away

Suddenly you love me and I know I’ve got to stay »

As we can see, no pretty shepherdesses rolling in the dew … But of course, everyone talks about love. This proves that in France, England and Italy, everything ends with woho woho or …with Zai Zai Zai Zai.