I did it à ma façon

When a French girl told me that 'My Way' was actually a French song called 'Comme d’habitude' I found this hard to believe but she was right. We know that Paul Anka had something to do with it (presumably the English lyrics) and a quick check with a marvellous website called ABC de la Chanson Francophone suggests that the tune and (French) lyrics were written by Jacques Revaux, Claude François and Gilles Thibault.

But I don’t see how the French words: Je me lève et je bouscule/ Tu ne te reveille pas comme d’habitude… go with the same tune that fits And now, the end is near/ And so I face the final curtain. I mean, there seem to be too many syllables.

Never mind. Discovering that website was a great joy; it has the words of over 19,000 French songs and over 16,000 “foreign” (mostly English) ones, of all periods up to 2004 and constantly updated. Copyright, of course, but OK for “usage privé ou éducatif”.

[Four years later I wrote another note about Comme d'Habitude.]