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"Beyond the Sea" is the English-language version of the French song "La Mer" by Charles Trenet, popularized by Bobby Darin in 1959. While the French original was an ode to the sea, Jack Lawrence – who composed the English lyrics – turned it into a love song.
"La Mer" ("The Sea") is a song by the French composer, lyricist, singer and showman Charles Trenet. The song was first recorded by the French singer Roland Gerbeau in 1945. When Trenet's version was released in 1946, it became an unexpected hit and has remained a chanson classic and jazz standard ever since.
"La Mer" is Trenet's best-known work outside the French-speaking world, with more than 400 recorded versions. The tune, given unrelated English words and the title "Beyond the Sea" (or sometimes "Sailing"), was a hit for Bobby Darin in the early 1960s, and George Benson in the mid-1980s. "Beyond the Sea" was used in the ending credits of ...
The following is a list of English-language pop songs based on French-language songs. The songs here were originally written and performed in the French language. Later, new, English-language lyrics were set to the same melody as the original song. Songs are arranged in alphabetical order, omitting the articles "a" and "the".
Darin followed "Mack" with "Beyond the Sea", a jazzy English-language version of Charles Trenet's French hit song "La Mer". [1] Both tracks were produced by Atlantic founders Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun with staff producer Jerry Wexler and they featured arrangements by Richard Wess.
Lawrence also wrote the lyrics for "Tenderly", Sarah Vaughan's first hit and Rosemary Clooney's trademark song (in collaboration with composer Walter Gross), as well as the English language lyrics to "Beyond the Sea" (based on Charles Trenet's French language song "La Mer"), Bobby Darin's signature song.
The single release of the George Benson version contains Benson's cover version of "Beyond the Sea (La Mer)" as the B-side track.Benson's version of "Beyond the Sea" was released as a single, which peaked at number 60 on its second week in the UK Singles Chart [1] and remained on the chart for the following two weeks. [1]
One commentator above mentions that "Beyond the Sea" differs in style from the French original, but that is only true of Bobby Darin's cover: the 1940s recordings of Jack Lawrence's version by artists such as Harry James and Jack Owens have arrangements that are similar to that of Trenet, if lightly adapted to fit an American musical idiom.