michel[le]

song: Michelle
language: French
performers: Danielle Denin, Les Atomes, 18 Carats, Robert Demontigny, Bob Smart, Dominique

It's no surprise that there are lots of French covers of Michelle, what with the head start John & Paul gave the translators.

Let's start with Danielle Denin, whose recording of I'm Looking Through You was just posted the other day. This is the studio version, but there's an unembeddable live performance which is more interesting to watch, especially for the brief memory lapse at about 1:25. The translation she sings has a bit of a change: Michelle becomes Michel (Michael), and instead of "Michelle, ma belle, sont des mots qui vont très bien ensemble", we get "Michel et Danielle / sont deux noms qui vont très bien ensemble" ("Michael and Danielle / are two names that go together well").



Next up is Les Atomes from Saint-Jérome, Quebec:



Also from Quebec, a band called 18 Carats, who also change the gender to Michel:



Robert Demontigny, yet another Québécois, who mixes in some of the English lyrics here and there:



Bob Smart (whoever that is) also sings Danielle Denin's version (I guess it's better than "Michelle et Bob..."):



And finally, Dominique (a singer associated with Georges Jouvin), who also does the "Danielle" version:

je lis dans tes yeux

song: I'm Looking Through You
language: French
performer: Danielle Denin

Well I can't seem to find out anything about Danielle, which is odd because there are a bunch of her songs floating around on YouTube, but none of them give much in the way of clues. She seems to have released a few singles in the mid-60s and then vanished from the pop scene. Anyway, this is a nice version.