Que reste-t-il de nos amours ?

"Que reste-t-il de nos amours ?"
Single by Lucienne Boyer
B-side	"Colombe"
Released	1942
Recorded	1942
Genre	Jazz, Chanson
Length	3:17
Label	Columbia Records
Songwriter(s)	Charles Trenet

"Que reste-t-il de nos amours ?" (French pronunciation: [kə ʁɛstə t‿il də noz‿amuʁ], What Remains of Our Loves?) is a French popular song, with music by Léo Chauliac and Charles Trenet and lyrics by Charles Trenet.^[1][2] A version of the song with English lyrics entitled "I Wish You Love" is recognizable by the opening line "I wish you bluebirds, in the spring".

History

This song was first recorded by the French female singer Lucienne Boyer in 1942 (78 rpm, Columbia Records: BF 68). Second recorded by the French crooner Roland Gerbeau in February 1943 (78 rpm, Polydor Records: 524.830). Charles Trenet recorded his own version in July 1943 (78 rpm Columbia Records: DF 3116).

"I Wish You Love"

The song is best known to English-speaking audiences as "I Wish You Love", with new lyrics by American composer and lyricist, Albert Askew Beach (1924-1997): "I Wish You Love" was introduced in 1957 by Keely Smith as the title cut of her solo debut album, I Wish You Love, and was one of Smith's signature songs. Smith's debut album otherwise consisted of standards. She later recalled: "[when] we sat down to select the songs [the record producer] Voyle Gilmore...played a bunch of standards [then] said: 'I want to play you a really pretty French song [...] it won't mean nothing and you won't do it in the album but I just thought I'd play it for you' and he played 'I Wish You Love'. So, at the end of him playing all these songs [...] I said: 'Babe, I'll sing any 11 songs y'all want me to but I want to sing 'I Wish You Love'."^[3]

Other recordings

It has since become a musical standard, with many other recordings:

• Gloria Lynne's 1963 recording for the Everest label reached No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1964 and the top ten on the Easy Listening chart,^[4] and #3 on Cashbox Magazine's R&B chart (Billboard did not publish standard R&B listings during 1964).^[5]
• Dalida recorded the song in 1972.
• Rony Verbiest recorded the song in 2001.
• An Italian version entitled "Che cosa resta" was recorded by Franco Battiato in 1999.
• An Arabic version entitled "Shou Byeb'a" was recorded by Carla Chamoun in 2020.

Other notable recordings

Use in film

The song was heard in several films:

• It was used extensively in the François Truffaut film Stolen Kisses (1968), its French title, Baisers volés, having been taken from the song's lyrics.
• The song was also used in the films "Iris" (2001), "Something's Gotta Give" (2003), and "Ces amours-là" (2010).
• A performance of the song is featured in the film "Une jeune fille qui va bien" (2021).

References

External links

• Song lyric