Charles Trenet (May 18, 1913, Narbonne, France – February 19, 2001, Créteil… Read Full Bio ↴Charles Trenet (May 18, 1913, Narbonne, France – February 19, 2001, Créteil, France) was a French singer and songwriter, most famous for his recordings from the late 1930s through the mid-1950s, though his career continued through the 1990s. In an era in which it was exceptional for a singer to write his or her own material, Trenet wrote prolifically and preferred to record his own songs.

Some of his best known songs include "Boum...!", "Y'A D'La Joie", "Que Reste-T-Il De Nos Amours?", "Ménilmontant", and "Douce France". His catalog of songs is enormous, numbering close to a thousand. While many of his songs mined relatively conventional topics such as love, Paris, and nostalgia for his younger days, what set Trenet's songs apart were their personal, poetic, sometimes quite eccentric qualities, often infused with a warm wit. Some of his songs had unconventional subject matter, with whimsical imagery bordering on the surreal. "Y'A D'La Joie" evokes "joy" through a series of disconnected (though all vaguely phallic) images, including that of a subway car shooting out of its tunnel into the air, the Eiffel Tower crossing the street and a baker making excellent bread. The lovers engaged in a minuet in "La Polka Du Roi" reveal themselves at length to be "no longer human": they are made of wax and trapped in the Musée Grévin. Many of his hits from the 1930s and 1940s effectively combine the melodic and verbal nuance of French song with American swing rhythms.

Other artists have had hits with some of Trenet's songs, such as the American Bobby Darin's success with "Beyond the Sea" ("La Mer"). Darin's version preserved the charming chording of Trenet's original which the author dashed off in about an hour in 1946 as an homage to the French coastline, once again free of battleships and the scars of World War II.

Other Trenet songs were recorded by such popular French singers as Maurice Chevalier, Jean Sablon, and Frehel.

Rendez-vous sous la pluie
Charles Trenet Lyrics

En pleines vacances
Pour moi quelle chance
Tu m'avais dit :
« À bientôt à Paris »
Mais la grande ville
Est très hostile
Aux tendres vœux sur la plage promis !
Viendras-tu ?
Viendras-tu ?
Nini ?

Pourquoi m'avoir donné rendez-vous sous la pluie
Petite aux yeux si doux trésor que j'aime
Tout seul comme un idiot j'attends et je m'ennuie
Et je me pose aussi plus d'un problème
Pourtant on s'est connu par une claire nuit
Le ciel était si pur, la mer si belle !
Oui mais soudain voilà, tout est sombre aujourd'hui
Pourquoi m'avoir donné rendez-vous sous la pluie ?
Sous la pluie ?

J'ai mes chaussettes
Qui font trempette
J'ai des frissons
Mes pieds sont des glaçons
Et dans la brume
J'attrape un rhume
Combien d'garçons sont-ils morts de cette façon
Mais pourquoi ?
Mais pourquoi ?
Ninon ?

Pourquoi m'avoir donné rendez-vous sous la pluie
Petite aux yeux si doux trésor que j'aime
Tout seul comme un idiot j'attends et je m'ennuie
Et je me pose aussi plus d'un problème
Pourtant on s'est connu par une belle nuit
Dans tout le casino c'était la fête
Puisque tu m'as dit oui tout en baissant la tête
Pourquoi m'avoir donné rendez-vous sous la pluie ?
Sous la pluie ?

Lyrics © RAOUL BRETON EDITIONS, Peermusic Publishing

Written by: LAURENT HESS, ALEXANDRE SINIAVINE, CHARLES LOUIS TRENET

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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