Charles Trenet: Y'a d'la Joie

Liner Notes

In the mid-1970s, after a career that had spanned over five decades, Charles Trenet--modern France's answer to the medieval troubadour--decided that it was time to retire. Staging a number of large and successful farewell concerts, he bid a long and warm goodbye to his audience, and walked, as it were, into the sunset of his life. He had only, however, to take a few steps into the obscurity of twilight before he was hearing eager calls for him to turn around and face the crowd once again. For many of Trenet's fans it was simply impossible to believe that this man who was seemingly blessed with eternal youth, was succumbing to the demands of old age. Though already in his 60s, Trenet could pass for a man who'd only lived half as long as he. His music too, had a kind of timeless quality which seemed like it should last forever. Being a man who did not like to disappoint, Trenet could not help but listen with sympathy to his followers request. And so, long before middle-aged rockstars on nostalgia tours gave comebacks a bad name, he abandoned his retirement plans and returned to the stage, where he remained for over a decade, into his late 80s.

Born in Paris in 1913, Trenet enrolled in art school as a young man before deciding, in the mid 1930's to try and make a career out of writing and singing his own songs. With his willful refusal to take a bleak view of life, despite the gloom which had gathered in the European atmosphere, Trenet quickly struck a chord with his compatriots. His songs exhibited a rare form of sophisticated optimism, which maintained a remarkably upbeat and happy tone without, somehow, sounding naive or trite.

Trenet's stubbornly sanguine songs were, of course, powerless against such mighty forces as the war machines and terror of World War II. At the same time, the war was also unable to subdue Trenet's particular brand of joy. In fact, it was in the post-war years that Trenet's career took off. By the 1950's he had become one of, if not, the leading contemporary French song-writer. Unlike many popular French performers, his music boasts an international appeal, making waves throughout Europe and the world with songs that have become standards such as "La Mer (Beyond the Sea)," "Que Reste-t-il De Nos Amours (I Wish You Love)," and others. The genuineness of the sensibility which inspired Trenet to make poetry and music, enabled him to lighten moods around the globe. Listening to the songs in this collection, one feels that one has been brought into contact with a philosophical spirit that has arrived at the conclusion that the ultimate good in life is happiness, and that ideal beauty takes the form of a smile.

--Joshua Brown