Michel Legrand- The New I Love Paris

So, yes, due to this blog’s two year anniversary, we are doing Sunday blogs.  I am trying to use Sunday for records that have a special place in this blog’s history, and this one is a fine choice.  It features songs that have been mainstays of this site as well as an artist who I have sung the praises of.  Also, this was a steal at $1.

The pervy looking French dude on the cover is Michel Legrand (born in Courbevoie, France in 1932). He is a prolific French writer, composer, arranger and conductor.  With his work on over 200 film and TV scores, including his Oscar winning “Windmills of You Mind” for the Thomas Crown Affair, I regularly point our Legrand’s work on two of my favorite French movies. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort.  I have posted Umbrellas on this blog.  Still looking for a copy of Rochefort.  Anyway, Legrand is still alive today.

Legrand burst on American radar with his version of the Cole Porter standard “I Love Paris” in 1954.  This 1959 is an updated release of songs associated with the City of Lights.  All the big titles are on here.  The album features some vibrant and interesting arrangements.   The songs are wonderfully constructed, imaginatively executed, and overall, carried out beautifully.  One complaint, however, the songs on each side segue into each other so there are no breaks.  It does makes for a dreamy sequence, not unlike Legrand’s film work.  However, it does make it hard to isolate tracks for samples.

Speaking of which, I decided to highlight three of the songs I post on a normal basis on this blog.  First off, we have the combination of “I Love Paris” with “Mademoiselle de Paris”.  Second, we have “La Vie en Rose” with “Under Paris Skies”. I could write more about these but today, I will let the music speak for itself.

Great record.  Top billing.