Boum!

Last updated
Charles Trenet, the song's author, pictured in 1946 Action. Rodeo - Charles Trenet BAnQ P48S1P12764 crop.jpg
Charles Trenet, the song's author, pictured in 1946

"Boum!" (French pronunciation: [bum] , onomatopoeia similar to "boom" in English) is a popular 1938 song by the French singer/songwriter Charles Trenet which won him the Grand Prix du Disque. [1] It was one of several songs that Trenet wrote for the film La Route enchantée, for which he also wrote the screenplay and played the leading role. The film was directed by Pierre Caron, and was released in November 1938. [2] The song was initially released in 1938 by Columbia Records on a 10" single as the B-side to "Vous Êtes Jolie". [3]

Contents

Its light, irreverent lyrics express a joie de vivre typical in French popular music produced during the late 1930s, [4] reflecting the political unrest and economic uncertainty of that time. [5]

It includes depictions of the sounds made by various animals and also various onomatopoeia. The lyric to the refrain is:

Boum!Boom!
Quand notre coeur fait Boum!     When our heart goes "Boom!"
Tout avec lui dit Boum!Everything goes "Boom!" with it,
Et c'est l'amourAnd it is love
Qui s'éveille.Which awakes.

"Boum!" has been recorded by other artists and in English translation. In 1994 the song was covered by Belgian singer Maurane. [6]

The song has featured in a variety of films and documentaries, including The World at War , Something's Gotta Give , Toto the Hero , Skyfall , and A Good Year . In the BBC TV-series 'Allo 'Allo! , Edith Artois often sings it, saying that it is one of her favourites. It has also been used in commercial advertising.

Other recordings

Parody

In Hergé's The Adventures of Tintin comic Land of Black Gold , Trenet's "Boum!" is transformed into a radio advertising jingle for a fictional roadside assistance company, "Simoun" ("Autocart" in the English editions). In the animated film Mortadelo and Filemon: Mission Implausible , Jimmy el Cachondo sings it with an alternative lyric in Spanish.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Trenet</span> French singer-songwriter (1913–2001)

Louis Charles Augustin Georges Trenet was a renowned French singer-songwriter who composed both the music and the lyrics for nearly 1,000 songs over a career that lasted more than 60 years. These songs include "Boum!" (1938), "La Mer" (1946) and "Nationale 7" (1955). Trenet is also noted for his work with musicians Michel Emer and Léo Chauliac, with whom he recorded "Y'a d'la joie" (1938) for the first and "La Romance de Paris" (1941) and "Douce France" (1947) for the latter. He was awarded an Honorary Molière Award in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harold Rome</span> American composer, lyricist, and writer

Harold Jacob "Hecky" Rome was an American composer, lyricist, and writer for musical theater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">La Mer (song)</span> 1946 single by Charles Trenet

"La Mer" is a song by the French composer, lyricist, singer and showman Charles Trenet. The song was first recorded by the French singer Roland Gerbeau in 1945. When Trenet's version was released in 1946, it became an unexpected hit and has remained a chanson classic and jazz standard ever since.

"You Go to My Head" is a 1938 popular song composed by J. Fred Coots with lyrics by Haven Gillespie. Numerous versions of the song have been recorded, and it has since become a pop and jazz standard.

<i>Absinthe: La Folie Verte</i> 2001 studio album by Blood Axis and Les Joyaux de la Princesse

Absinthe: La Folie Verte is a concept album by Blood Axis and Les Joyaux de la Princesse. It is an homage to the cordial absinthe.

"My Heart Belongs to Daddy" is a song written by Cole Porter for the musical Leave It to Me! which premiered on November 9, 1938. It was originally performed by Mary Martin, who played Dolly Winslow, the young "protégée" of a rich newspaper publisher, her sugar daddy. In the musical, Dolly wears a fur coat while stranded at a Siberian railway station and surrounded by eager men. She performs a striptease and sings to them about how since she has her "daddy", she may still flirt with other men but won't "follow through".

"Don't Fence Me In" is a popular American song written in 1934, with music by Cole Porter and lyrics by Robert Fletcher and Cole Porter. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.

"This Can't Be Love" is a show tune and a popular song from the 1938 Rodgers and Hart musical The Boys from Syracuse when it was sung by Eddie Albert and Marcy Westcott. The lyrics poke fun at the common depiction of love in popular songs as a host of malignant symptoms, saying, "This can't be love because I feel so well."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Que reste-t-il de nos amours ?</span> 1942 single by Lucienne Boyer

"Que reste-t-il de nos amours ?" is a French popular song, with music by Léo Chauliac and Charles Trenet and lyrics by Charles Trenet. A version of the song with English lyrics entitled "I Wish You Love" is recognizable by the opening line "I wish you bluebirds, in the spring".

"Love in Bloom" is a popular song with music by Ralph Rainger and lyrics by Leo Robin, published in 1934. It was introduced in the film She Loves Me Not by Bing Crosby and Kitty Carlisle. It remained familiar for many years thereafter as the theme song of Jack Benny, played at the opening of his radio and television programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay</span> Vaudeville song popularised by Lottie Collins

"Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay" is a vaudeville and music hall song first performed by the 1880s. It was included in Henry J. Sayers' 1891 revue Tuxedo in Boston, Massachusetts. The song became widely known in the 1892 version sung by Lottie Collins in London music halls, and also became popular in France.

"(I've Got) Beginner's Luck" is a song composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, written for the 1937 film Shall We Dance, it was introduced by Fred Astaire. It is a brief comic tap solo with cane where Astaire's rehearsing to a record of the number is cut short when the record gets stuck. Astaire's commercial recording for Brunswick was very popular in 1937.

"Spring is Here" is a 1938 popular song composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Lorenz Hart for the musical I Married an Angel (1938), where it was introduced by Dennis King and Vivienne Segal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ja-Da</span> Song written & published in 1918

"Ja-Da " is a hit song written in 1918 by Bob Carleton. The title is sometimes rendered simply as "Jada." The song has flourished through the decades as a jazz standard.

Boum may refer to one of the following:

<i>Françoise Hardy Sings in English</i> 1966 studio album by Françoise Hardy

Françoise Hardy Sings in English is a studio album of the French popular singer Françoise Hardy. It was released in United Kingdom in early September 1966, on LP, disques Vogue/Vogue international industries, and in France, in the last week of the same month, on entitled LP, In English, disques Vogue/Vogue international industries.

Counterplan is a 1932 Soviet drama film directed by Sergei Yutkevich and Fridrikh Ermler. The film's title song, "The Song of the Counterplan", composed by Dmitri Shostakovich with lyrics by the poet Boris Kornilov, became world famous. Shostakovich's composition, with new lyrics by Jeanne Perret, would be used shortly after in the notable song of the French socialist movement, "Au-devant de la vie".

La Madelon or Quand Madelon, also known in English as Madelon (I'll Be True to the Whole Regiment) is a French popular song of World War I. Although it is mostly known as La Madelon the proper title is Quand Madelon which are the beginning words of the refrain. The lyrics are by Louis Bousquet (1914) and the music by Camille Robert.

<i>Under Paris Skies</i> 1960 studio album by Andy Williams

Under Paris Skies is the seventh studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams and was released in the fall of 1960 by Cadence Records. This, his final LP for the label, is a collection of songs that Joseph Laredo describes in the liner notes of the CD release by Varèse Sarabande as "a delightful program of twelve compositions, selected by Williams, that proved an engaging mixture of genuine French popular songs and American-penned emulations."

Jane Bos was a French composer of film scores between 1927 and 1946, an era when it was very rare for women to do so.

References

  1. ↑ Montand, Yves; Rotman, Patrick & Hamon, Hervé (1992). You See, I Haven't Forgotten. Translated by Leggatt, Jeremy. New York: Knopf. p. 49. ISBN   978-0-679-41012-6.
  2. ↑ "La Route enchantée". IMDb . Retrieved 20 October 2023.
  3. ↑ "Charles Trenet – Vous Êtes Jolie / Boum !!..." Discogs . Retrieved 20 October 2023.
  4. ↑ Rearick, Charles (1997). The French in Love and War: Popular Culture in the Era of the World Wars . New Haven: Yale University Press. pp.  212-4. ISBN   978-0300064339.
  5. ↑ Rearick, Charles (1997). The French in Love and War: Popular Culture in the Era of the World Wars . New Haven: Yale University Press. p.  212. ISBN   978-0300064339.
  6. ↑ "Clip Maurane, Boum, vidéo et Paroles de chanson". Jukebo.fr. Archived from the original on 2012-03-07. Retrieved 2012-01-17.
  7. ↑ "www.allmusic.com". allmusic.com. Retrieved July 6, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.