Charles Aznavour – The Aznavour Way

I continue to be alphabetically challenged on a project that is alphabetically centered. It really makes me wonder what I’m up to here.

When I go to the end of the P’s, I decided to go back and do some catchup with records I’ve acquired since I did the earlier letters – and almost right away, missed one! So, here’s Charles Aznavour, not even in proper catchup order.

I’ve already (and often) mentioned that I’m just a sucker for French pop, for that certain ambience of the ’60s sound as well as the loveliness of the language. The name of Aznavour was familiar to anyone growing up in the ’60s, even if he didn’t have hits in the US – he was such an international icon, and if his renditions didn’t catch fire here, several of his songs were covered by others, particularly what was translated as “Yesterday When I Was Young.” In fact, it was an open mic singer who recently reminded me of how much I loved that song, when done the right way – I’ll admit the very popular Roy Clark version didn’t quite capture me, it loses a bit too much of the French sound, getting into too much of a cadence. It almost needs to be done in the spoken Aznavour way, if you will.

Anyway, this 1969 compilation was a dollar bin rescue from Forever Changes at the beginning of 2023. The cover is a bit beat, but the record is pristine – often the case with foreign language records that never get played. I quite enjoy it and pop it on whenever we’re having a French pop Sunday morning.