“Autumn Leaves” has its origin in French popular song.

In 1950, the head of Capital Records music publishing division, Mickey Goldsen, asked for recordings of songs then popular in France. He especially loved a song called “Les feuilles mortes” (The Dead Leaves), with words by Jacques Prévert and music by Joseph Kosma.

In fact, he thought this mournful song was the greatest he had ever heard. Immediately he contacted the pair and they agreed to allow him to produce an English-language version. But he had to have it done in four months. He turned to Johnny Mercer, president of Capitol, but more important, author of more than a thousand song texts, including many hits.

Mercer agreed to write a text, but didn’t get right down to business. After three months, Goldsen had to call to remind him. Mercer had to catch a train the next day and asked Goldsen to take him to the station. He promised to work on it and mail the finished lyric to him. Goldsen, in turn, was 10 minutes late arriving at Mercer’s house, and Mercer had used the time to write the lyric.

As Goldsen drove to the train station, Mercer read his lyric. It brought Goldsen to tears. Mercer knew no French. He surely had a rough prose translation to work from, but in no way is Mercer’s lyric an English translation of Prévert’s. It is an English-language lyric with similar imagery written to fit the tune.

While French is rich in rhymes, English verse gets its greatest strength from alliteration. Mercer’s text includes only three rhymes, but a great deal of alliteration.

Aside from Mercer’s poetic skill, the lyric may gain some of its emotional strength from Mercer’s realization that popular music was changing and leaving him behind. Most of his greatest successes were behind him, and he poured his sense of foreboding into “Autumn Leaves.” As it turns out, it made him more money than any other single lyric he had ever written.

The recording here is by the great French singer Edith Piaf, who had a very difficult personal life. She recorded Autumn Leaves/Les feuilles mortes in 1950. It sounds like the melancholy of the lyric resonated greatly with her.

Photo by David Guion
Main source: America’s songs / Philip Furia and Michael Lasser.