For millions of her compatriots, Piaf and her music, la chanson réaliste — a Gallic version of the blues made popular at the turn of the last century by melancholy music-hall artists like Aristide Bruant and Yvette Guilbert — define what it means to be French.
He did so in a student bedsit in Leeds, trying to do his own version of a chanson, dreaming of prostitutes and pop stars, dreaming of Soho.
Each can be heard on RadioLulu along with the 2006 cover version they inspired, "Chanson pour Louise Brooks," by the French group Les Primitifs Du Futur, featuring the famed cartoonist Robert Crumb on mandolin.
This was followed by the Karlamagnús saga ("Saga of Charlemagne"), a collection of prose renderings of French chansons de geste, including a Norse version of the French epic La Chanson de Roland.
There's jazz, classical, world music, film scores, chanson, reggae, classic rock hits and reggae versions of classic rock hits.
It was almost inevitable that chanson, seen by some as France's indigenous version of soul music, would be influenced by the lush Philly sound that came to dominate the US in the early 70s.
Gainsbourg arrived on the scene in the nick of time: by the early 60's, the chanson was under siege, menaced by the popularity of Johnny Hallyday, whose Franglais versions of hits like "Let's Twist Again" were a complete capitulation to American music, and a hideous parody of it.
That album included a version of the Glenn Miller standard Tuxedo Junction, which became a minor hit in Britain, paving the way for Chanson d'Amour, a 1958 composition by Wayne Shanklin.
The two North Korean athletes compete in pairs figure skating, where they have skated to a cover version of the Beatles' song "A Day in the Life" and Quebecois singer Ginette Reno's "Je Ne Suis Qu'une Chanson".
Chanson du rossignol / Igor Stravinsky.
