Charles Aznavour
photo: joop van bilsen, for anefo · cc0 ↗Charles Aznavour spent his career writing three-minute plays about heartbreak and mortality, singing them in a reedy, unglamorous voice that Édith Piaf and Charles Trenet both heard something in before the French public did. He wrote almost everything himself, at a pace and emotional directness that made him a model for the confessional singer-songwriter chanson took decades to fully credit. By the time 'La Bohème' turned a fictional painter's wasted youth into a standard, Aznavour had already spent twenty years proving persistence could out-argue a pretty voice.
Piaf's raw, all-in emotional delivery set the bar Aznavour spent his career trying to clear — she encouraged him early, telling him 'you will make it,' and he went on to tour as her opening act and lighting man, write songs for her, and become her manager.
listen forThe wounded, unguarded delivery on 'Que c'est triste Venise' carries the same emotional nakedness Piaf brought to 'La Vie en rose.'
Trenet's easy melodic charm and light rhythmic bounce gave the young Aznavour an alternative to Piaf's tragedy — Trenet was one of the first established stars to encourage him, before Piaf did.
listen forThe buoyant, swinging rhythm of 'Emmenez-moi' has some of the same lift as 'La Mer' — a lightness Aznavour rarely gets credit for next to his sadder songs.