9 Dec 2012 - La Mer / Beyond the Sea

How does a song get under your skin like that? I always thought they were completely different songs. The latter - Bobby Darin - version knocked the bricks over when I was driving home from my uncle's funeral a few years ago. Both versions have always had a phantom-like presence. In the last few weeks I have become completely smitten. Inexplicably.

There is a touch of tragedy to both under the joyful overtones. Trenet's original version appeared in France in 1939 - I like to think in that fateful summer of denial. Darin went through various hells before dying at the short-changed age of 37 of something he pretty much knew would get him.

Two wonderful interpretations of a magical song with a spell of its own.