Today Montreal-based songwriter Common Holly releases her take on Michel Legrand's "Amour, Amour" from the 1970 film Peau d'Âne. For her version, Common Holly takes to guitar and voice alone, presenting the song at nearly half the tempo of the original. The mood shifts accordingly, moving from romantic to aching, playful to hypnotic.
"This song has been in my head since I first encountered it during a film screening in a high school French class," Brigitte Naggar (Common Holly) says. "We had the opportunity to watch Peau D'ane, a 1970's fantasy musical belonging to the infamous ‘Demy-world’ of director Jacques Demy. Between the chromatically whacky music, outrageous themes and whimsical visuals, I haven't been able to get it out of my mind in 18ish years, so a little while ago I adapted the song to guitar."
Despite living in Montréal for years, this is Common Holly's first release where she sings in French.
"This is also a nod to my home in Quebec and to my French heritage," Naggar says. "My dad's side of the family is French, and he's been making this request for years."
Michel Legrand wrote the original composition for Peau d'Âne adapted from 1943 short story "Le Passe-Muraille" by Marcel Aymé. The musical version, "Amour," first hit stages in 1997 in Paris where it won the Prix Molière for Best Musical.