再次从everything2上获得。有趣的故事。
Les Feuilles Mortes (Autumn Leaves), Lyrics by Jacques Prévert, (1945) Music by Joseph Kosma, (1945), was first sung in French in 1945 by the French singer/actor Yves Montand as "Jean Diego" in Marcel Carné's film Les Portes de la Nuit. The movie, written by French poet Jacques Prévert, is a sad love story set in post-World War II Paris, February 1945. After Jean Diego, a manual laborer, sees his friend Raymond Lecuyer, newly released from prison, he encounters a tramp who calls himself Fate. The tramp predicts that Jean will soon meet and fall in love with the most wonderful woman in the world. His prophecy appears to come true as Jean meets Malou that evening. However, he quickly discovers that her brother Guy is the person who gave Raymond away to the Gestapo.
The English lyrics of Autumn Leaves by Johnny Mercer (1950) (in Beltane's WU above) are less melancholy than the French lyrics of Jacques Prévert. Many performers such as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and Barbra Streisand have recorded English versions, sometimes adding a stanza from the French lyrics in lieu of the repeated English stanzas. An instrumental version by Miles Davis and John Coltrane sounds beautiful without words.
The melody of 'Autumn Leaves' was originally written as a ballet music for 'Le rendez-vous' for Roland Petit. The original stage design was done by Pablo Picasso. Moved by the music and the dance, the French film director Michael Carne' based his screenplay on 'Le rendez-vous': not without problems. Originally he tried to talk Marlene Dietrich into playing the lead role, which she refused. Another actor refused the role because of the fact that Marlene had refused. The composer Kosma, who had set the melody of the ballet into a chanson on the poem ' Feuilles mortes' (Dead leaves), insisted in using the sung version. The movie was a disaster, but the melody (hummed by Yves Montand) became an instant hit. History tells that the first recording was made by Cora Vaucair in 1948. Yves Montand followed the same year. In 1949, Juliette Greco made the first clip while singing the song (amidst autumn scenes of course). The first English version, which was translated by Johnny Mercer, was sung by Edith Piaf, the famous French 'chansonier'. The rest is history: Jo Stafford (1950), Mitch Miller (1950), Bing Crosby (1950), Artie Shaw (1951), Anny Gould (1955), Roger Williams (1955), Nat King Cole (1955), Frank Sinatra (1956), Stéphane Grapelli (1956), Duke Ellington (1957), Cannonball Adderley (1958), Sylvie Vartan (1968), Placido Domingo (1990) and Ute Lemper (1992).