La Mer (song)

Trenet said that he had written an initial version of the song's lyrics as a poem at the age of 16, many years before he came up with a tune for it. The tune came to him while he was traveling by train in 1943 between Montpellier and Perpignan as he was gazing out of the window at the Étang de Thau, a lagoon in the south of France. He jotted it down on a piece of paper and in the afternoon he worked out the details with his pianist Léo Chauliac. That evening they performed it in front of an audience without much of an impact.[1][2]

The song was not recorded before the end of World War II. It was first offered to Suzy Solidor, who, however, declined it. After that the job fell to Roland Gerbeau, who recorded it together with Jo Bouillon's orchestra at the end of 1945. The orchestration and chorus were provided by Albert Lasry. Trenet himself recorded his song for the first time in 1946.[3]

Over the years the song turned out to be rather popular throughout the world and developed into a chanson classic and jazz standard with a large number of prominent artists recording their own versions. Besides the original in French, the song was also recorded in several other languages with the English version "Beyond the Sea" being particularly popular and becoming the signature song for the American singer Bobby Darin.[4] In 1966 there were already over 100 different recordings of La Mer and it was considered to be France's best selling song together with Edith Piaf's "La Vie en rose".[5] By the time of Trenet's death in 2001 there were more than 4000 different recordings of it[6][7] with over 70 million copies sold in total.[8]

Despite various translations into other languages the original French version was popular outside France and with non-French musicians as well. Trenet published his recording in the US in 1947[9] and Bing Crosby recorded La Mer on his 1953 album Le Bing: Song Hits of Paris.

Charles Trenet's recording of 'La Mer' is choreographed in Matthew Bourne's 1989 ballet suite, Infernal Galop, "a French dance with English subtitles", in which a merman seduces three matelots.[10]

The song was also recorded by Cliff Richard.[11] In 1976 Julio Iglesias included the song on his live album En el Olympia.[12] The song was included on Dalida's 1999 posthumous album Besame Mucho.[13] Demis Roussos included the song on his 1995 studio album Immortel.[14]

More recent versions include Kristina & Laura, Miguel Bosé, Manlio Sgalambro, Lisa del Bo, Biréli Lagrène, Patricia Kaas, Lola Dutronic, Mireille Mathieu, Chantal Chamberland and others.

Instrumental versions were done by Ray Conniff His Orchestra and Chorus, Le Grand Orchestre de Paul Mauriat, Richard Clayderman, Django Reinhardt.

The French original is featured prominently in a variety of films, including L.A. Story, in which it is played during the opening montage; French Kiss (1995), in which it is sung by lead actor Kevin Kline[21] and Mr. Bean's Holiday, which uses a recording of Trenet himself in its final scene. It also is played in the last episode of White Collar named Aú Revoir started on a record player by Mozzie and then it plays over Neal Caffrey cracking a safe and Neal Caffrey walking through the streets of Paris. The song is sung in the French documentary film Blood of the Beasts (1949). Julio Iglesias' 1976 live recording is used instead of dialogue and other sounds (including a gun shot) during the last three and a half minutes of the 2011 British spy-film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, directed by Tomas Alfredson. The film and the song both end in the same moment (credit credentials aside). It is performed in the film A Life Less Ordinary (1997) by Ewan McGregor and Cameron Diaz. The Trenet recording is heard over the end credits of an episode of The Simpsons titled "The Squirt and the Whale".[2][22][23][24][25][26][27] The lyrics are used on the episode Whatever the Case May Be of the TV Series Lost (TV series), as notations on some notes made by Danielle Rousseau that Sayid Jarrah and Shannon Rutherford were trying to translate.

On British television, the original version of the song was used as the title music for ITV's coverage of UEFA Euro 2016.[28]

Other movies that featured the song include Every Girl Should Be Married, A Safe Place, Edith and Marcel, Tequila Sunrise, Bitter Moon, Funny Bones, The Way We Laughed, Mondays in the Sun, The Dreamers, Marseille, Beyond the Sea, Man of the Year, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Autómata, The Brand New Testament, Nina and One Wild Moment. The Robbie Williams version plays over the closing credits of Finding Nemo and is included on the soundtrack.[29]

"La Mer" has been used in films such as Bernardo Bertolucci's 2003 The Dreamers, the 2010 German film Animals United, and in the closing scene of Mr Bean's Holiday. A Julio Iglesias version plays in the final scene of the 2011 spy film, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.[30] The song was also used in the opening credits of the 2007 film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which used the song to highlight the paralysing effects of a stroke that felled his fellow Frenchman, Jean-Dominique Bauby. Both Trenet songs "La Mer" and "Vous qui Passez sans me Voir" were featured prominently in Henry Jaglom's 1971 A Safe Place.[31] It was also used as the opening title song in Steve Martin's L.A. Story in 1991.

"La Mer" also features in Irish Ferries' TV and radio advert in Ireland, as part of their "Sail In Style" campaign to advertise their Dublin-France route.[32]

• Second Hand Songs: La Mer page
• Discogs: La Mer page
• Will Friedwald: Ocean Crossing at bobbydarin.com
• Lyricstranslate Original lyrics plus crowdsourced translations (not singable) into many languages. Unlike many webpages, this page preserves the French diacritical marks–été not ete, bergère not bergere, etc.—which are part of the spelling.