Edith Gassion was born in Paris in 1915.
Her mother abandoned her at birth and her grandmother raised her in a brothel.
Her friends and mentors were the prostitutes she grew up with.
At 14, she began earning money by singing on the streets.
At 17, she was pregnant and got married.
At 19, a nightclub owner heard her unusual voice and hired her to sing in his club.
She was so tiny, just 4’ 8” tall and weighing 66lbs, that he called her “La Mome Piaf” (The Little Sparrow).
So Edith Gassion changed her name to Edith Piaf.
Her voice, trained in street singing, sounded like no one else.
The public loved her, every song she sang became a massive hit.
But she lived a self-destructive life.
Gossip and scandal, public love affairs, rumoured prostitution, heavy drinking.
In 1949 the love of her life, world-champion boxer Marcel Cerdan, was killed in a plane crash.
In 1951 she was seriously injured in the first of a series of car crashes.
She became addicted to morphine and collapsed on stage in a coma.
By 1960, aged just 45, she was clearly reaching the end of her career.
Composer Charles Dumont always had one ambition in life, for the legendary Piaf to sing one of his songs.
He had composed thirty songs for her, but every time she turned him down.
She said his music was too military, it sounded like horses galloping.
By now Dumont was penniless.
His friend, the lyricist Michel Vaucaire, said he should take one last chance.
This time they would present the music with words Vaucaire would write.
They arranged an appointment with Piaf’s secretary.
When Piaf found out she told her secretary to cancel it.
But the secretary couldn’t get hold of them and they turned up at Piaf’s flat.
Piaf said, okay play one song then go.
Dumont began to play his military music, Vaucaire began to sing in French:
“No, absolutely nothing.
No, I regret nothing.
Not the good, I’ve been given,
Not the bad, it’s all the same to me.
No absolutely nothing.
No, I regret nothing.
It is paid for, done, forgotten.
I don’t care about the past.”
When he finished, Piaf simply said “Play it again.”
Afterwards, with tears in her eyes, she said “This will be my greatest song ever.”
The words worked perfectly against the music.
It sounded like the victory of love, of never giving in no matter what life threw at you.
It did indeed become her greatest song ever.
It sold 100,000 copies in two days, a phenomenal amount at that time.
Three years later Edith Piaf died, and “Je Ne Regrette Rien” will always be her most iconic song.
Charles Dumont learned that it wasn’t that his work was wrong.
It was just the wrong place and the wrong time.
By not giving up, by keeping going until he found the right place and the right time, he had the biggest hit of his, Michel Vaucaire’s, and Edith Piaf’s lives.
And if he’d quit when it made sense to quit, it would never have happened.
Dear Dave,
I thought I’d start in saying that I’m most dyslexic and that Creative Mischief is the only book I have read in the past 6 years. I was delighted to see that “Bunch of shits” Sue Douglas featured as Sue is a friend’s mother and someone whom has been particularly supportive.
Attached is a project I’m working on.
The tables will be £3000 commissioned one offs.
Composition: Aluminium, Steel and printed leather table top.
http://guygee.com/ (best viewed on desktop)
I’m looking to collaborate with ad companies, interior designers, galleries and magazines. If you know anyone in these realms that you think might be interesting for me to talk I’d love to know.
I’m currently at the stage where I’m seeking advice from a variety of individuals as what steps next to take.
Any shared thoughts would be hugely appreciated!
Thank you for your time, all the best,
Guy – 07595081804
Guy. I heard a story recently where a person in an acting class had to act out a “lampshade.” I thought, what a brilliant idea. Give your table a story, a fifth leg. Send me a photo.
Hi Dave, There’s quitting, and there’s Changing direction. I don’t think changing direction is quitting, and quitting is not changing direction. Edith Piaf had a dreadful life. She also survived two world wars. My ex-mother in-law was French. I asked her what life was like under Nazi occupation. She never ever replied. She was 13 years old at the time, and reading between the lines of the look of shock and horror on her face when I asked her that question said it all. I think that is why that song became so powerful in France. It struck a deep chord for the French that went way beyond Edith Piaf and touched the souls and hears of the people of France, and that is exactly what advertising is not doing these days. Everything is just another boring military march and for the general public it’s as dull and repetitive as the German Army survivors of Leningrad who were made to trudge in the snow for their sins all the way back to Berlin in the snow.
And it’s a great song deserving of a great back story.
Kev.
Which specific adverts are “as dull and repetitive as the German Army survivors of Leningrad who were made to trudge in the snow for their sins all the way back to Berlin”.
I’m curious why you’d use such a hideous analogy.