FOREIGN SONGS BECOME ENGLISH HITS (3):ITALIAN: O sole mio (1898) or It's Now Or Never by Elvis Presley has also been performed and covered by many artistes, including opera pillars like as Enrico Caruso, Mario Lanza and The Three Tenors, as well as rock and pop artistes like Bryan Adams and Luciano Pavarotti who won a Grammy for his rendition of this operatic piece.
The lyrics were written by Giovanni Capurr, and composed by Eduardo di Capua. Though there are versions in other languages, O sole mio is usually sung in the original Neapolitan language and translates literally as My Sun.
FRENCH: Many French songs have been translated into English ones but two hits that blogger remembers are: (1) L'amour est bleu or Love Is Blue (1967), a song composed by André Popp and written by Pierre Cour. Brian Blackburn wrote English language lyrics for it. It was first performed in French by Greek-German singer Vicky Leandros or Vicky.
It has been recorded by many other musicians and French orchestra leader Paul Mauriat's is the best known. Claudine Longet's, Heather and The Diamond Four versions made it a hit with our Singapore listeners.
FRENCH: (2) Dominique (1963) is another French by Soeur Sourire (Jeanine Deckers) of Belgium, also known as The Singing Nun. It is about Saint Dominic, a Spanish-born priest and founder of the Dominican Order. The English version of the song was written by Noël Regney.
In addition to French and English, Deckers recorded versions in Dutch, German, Hebrew and Japanese. Also, Debbie Reynolds starred in The Singing Nun movie (image) which has an English version of the song. It was the second foreign language song to hit the top of the Hot 100 in 1963, the other being Sukiyaki by Kyu Sakamoto (previous posting).
Another one is Volare or Nel blu di pinto di blu by Domenico Modugno in 1958. No other foreign language song reached the US Billboard Charts until the Spanish language hit Eres tú hit the US charts in 1973.
Know a foreign song in English? Tell us.
Image: google
Information: Wikipedia Songs
Original article: Andy Lim
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