After Hours

Juliette Greco. Sous le ciel de Paris

Here's Juliette, the love of Miles Davis' life - well, he loved her as much as a sociopath can love anyone else - with an old favorite. You may know it as "Under Paris Skies." Besides the title, the English version is way different from the French. The English lyrics were written with the belief that Paris was infested with loose women and that a poor American was bound to be taken in by at least one of them. The French version is much more quaint and nostalgic than that. OK, so I found a version by Edith Piaf. So everybody's thinking, "Oh great, Edith Piaf. I can dig that. Lay it on me, bruthuh," but this arrangement is pretty terrible. The choir and the orchestra jumping out of nowhere is a bit jarring. Piaf's singing is remarkably restrained (in contrast to her usual semi-bombastic), but I prefer Juliette's approach. Here's Piaf:

Compare and contrast.