THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

147-Charles Aznavour-She.

1974-Number 1 single.

Best Bit-At 1.45. The most poignant lyrics ever written about natures greatest creation.

Charles Aznavour was born Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian on May 22nd, 1924, in Paris, French Third Republic, he died on October 1st, 2018 of cardio respiratory arrest complicated by an acute pulmonary edema, at the age of 94. Aznavour wrote or co-wrote over 1000 songs, and recorded more than 1,200 songs, and was one of the worlds best ever selling artists with sales estimated between 180 to 200 million records sold. He released 91 studio Albums between 1953-2015, and 225 singles between 1948-2014, there are also 193 official compilation Albums available. One of the reasons for such a large discography is that he recorded many of his songs in French, English, Spanish, Italian, and German, and when performing live he would sing in many different languages. In the UK, his only other top 40 single was ‘The Old Fashioned Way,’ which reached Number 38 in 1973, while he has never had a single chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in America. Charles Aznavour also had a long career as an actor appearing in 60 feature films between 1936-2009, and there are at least three documentary films made about him. In 2017 Aznavour and his sister Aida were awarded the ‘Raoul Wallenberg Award’ for there rescue activities during World War 2. The Aznavour’s were closely linked to the ‘Missak Manouchian Resistance Group’, and in this context they offered shelter to Armenians, Jews, and others at their own Paris flat, risking their own lives.

‘She’ was co-written by Charles Aznavour (music) and Herbert Kretzmer, (1925-2020) who provided the lyrics, for the UK ‘ITV’ television series ‘Seven Faces of Women.’ Kretzmer who is perhaps best remembered for being the lyricist for the English language adaption of ‘Les Miserables,’ and also had a long time collaboration with Aznavour has said,’What they needed was a song to link the seven plays, and the producer thought I might write something for Marlene Dietrich as she represented the ageless woman. I didn’t like that idea much as if you’re going to write about a woman’s mystique, it would be better if it were not sung by a woman. If she sung about her own mystery the song would be too calculated and knowing. I said, ‘It should be a song about a woman as seen by a man, and what better man than Charles Aznavour, who sings about love and romance?’ I brought him into the project and it turned out terribly well.’

‘She’ spent four weeks at Number 1 in the UK in 1974, fulfilling a life time ambition of Aznavour’s to have an English sung Number 1 hit, he also recorded the song in several other languages. The song was revived in 1999 when Elvis Costello’s (see also best songs 836) version was featured over the closing credits of the film ‘Notting Hill,’ except in America, where the Boyzone song ‘No Matter What’ was played instead. The Elvis Costello version reached Number 19 on the UK top 40, giving Costello his first top 20 hit in the UK in 16 years.

‘She may be the beauty or the beast, may be the famine or the feast, may turn each day into a heaven or a hell.’