C'est La Vie

Album: single release (1955)
Charted: 11
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Songfacts®:

  • Everyone's in love with someone else, but somehow the right people never get together in this jazz standard written by Tin Pan Alley composer Edward White and Mack Wolfson. Backed by the Hugo Peretti Orchestra, Sarah Vaughan was one of the first artists to record the track in 1955 and was the most successful, staying on the pop charts for 15 weeks and peaking at #11.
  • The French expression "c'est la vie" translates to "that's life." In the song, Vaughan responds to her mixed-up loved life with the phrase after another woman steals her man:

    There goes happy Jane
    Here's the reason why
    She just found a sweetheart
    But no one's gonna cry
    Though she stole his love from me
    C'est la vie, c'est la vie
  • Two other versions charted in 1955: Pop singer Sunny Gale hit #85 and the vocal duo the DeJohn Sisters landed at #97.
  • Wolfson and White were regular collaborators throughout the '50s, penning hits from Frank Sinatra ("Flowers Mean Forgiveness,") Tony Bennett ("Happiness Street (Corner Sunshine Square)"), and Patti Page ("Father, Father").

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