It’s a song that resembles us. “It’s so good”, because it’s so good

“C’est si bon”, composed in 1947 by Henri Betti, took a few years to establish itself as an international standard, including thanks to an English version which kept the title, which had become a French-speaking cliché like “la vie en rose”.

In partnership with the exhibition It’s a song that resembles us – Worldwide hits of French-speaking popular music At the Cité internationale de la langue française in Villers-Cotterêts, these chronicles look in detail at each of the stories presented there.

You obviously know this song, but you may not know this voice captured on a television show in 1959. It is Henri Betti, composer and singer, who gave the world an immense standard : It is so goodThe song is known both in the original version with lyrics by André Ornez and in an English version which is also called It is so good.

It is so good is titled It is so good in its adaptations in English, German, Hebrew, Swedish, Polish, Japanese, Danish, Dutch and even Yiddish. It shares this singularity with another great French classic that Louis Armstrong recorded in 1950 on the other side of the same 78 rpm.‘is so good And La vie en rose as two pillars of a certain romantic vision of France. And the very genesis of this song is so French, my dear. One day in the summer of 1947 in Nice, the composer Henri Betti daydreams in front of the window of a women’s lingerie shop. And a nine-note theme comes to him. The text, written by André Ornez, the composer, proposes the song to Yves Montand at the same time as another title that he composed and whose lyrics were written by Édith Piaf herself for her former lover. Yves Montand records But what do I have? ? and he refuses It is so goodwhich means that the first recorded version will be that of Jean Marco with the Jacques Hélian orchestra. Jean Marco is the creator of Old rascalsdied at the age of 29 in a car accident.

In this episode of This song reminds me of usyou hear excerpts from:

Henry Betti, It is so good, 1959

Louis Armstrong, It is so good, 1950

Louis Armstrong, La vie en rose, 1950

Yves Montand, But what do I have? 1947

Jacques Hélian and his orchestra with Jean Marco, It is so good, 1948

Johnny Desmond, It is so good, 1950

Yves Montand, It is so good, 1948

Yves Montand, It is so good, 1964

Eartha Kitt, It is so good, 1953

Cliff Richard & The Shadows, It is so good, 1963

You can also extend this column with the book This song reminds me of us published by Heritage Publishing.

You can also follow the news of this column on X (ex-Twitter).