Noël Regney (born Léon Schlienger; 19 August 1922 – 22 November 2002), was a French
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
veteran
A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in a particular occupation or field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in a military.
A military veteran that has ...
and songwriter who is best known for composing the
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...
standard "
Do You Hear What I Hear?
"Do You Hear What I Hear?" is a song written in October 1962, with lyrics by Noël Regney and music by Gloria Shayne. The pair, married at the time, wrote it as a plea for peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Regney had been invited by a record ...
" with his then-wife
Gloria Shayne Baker Gloria Shayne Baker (September 4, 1923 – March 6, 2008) was an American composer and songwriter best known for composing the " Do You Hear What I Hear?" Christmas carol in 1962 with her then husband, Noël Regney.
Early life
Baker was born a ...
in 1962.
Originally from
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
, France, he moved to New York City and then eventually Connecticut.
Life and career
He was born Léon Schlienger in
Strasbourg
Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...
,
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
. Léon Schlienger, written backwards, is Noël Regnei (-lhcS). He grew up
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, but later became a
Unitarian Universalist
Unitarian or Unitarianism may refer to:
Christian and Christian-derived theologies
A Unitarian is a follower of, or a member of an organisation that follows, any of several theologies referred to as Unitarianism:
* Unitarianism (1565–present) ...
. He was drafted into the Nazi army despite being a Frenchman like many other "''
Malgré-nous
The term Malgré-nous (, or more figuratively 'we who are forced against our will') refers to men from Alsace–Lorraine who were conscripted into the German military after the region's annexation from France during World War II. The female term ...
''". As an Alsatian, he spoke the German dialect
Alsatian as fluently as French. It is said that he soon deserted, joined a group of French Resistance fighters, and became a double agent working for the French. He led a party of Nazis into an ambush, was shot in the arm, but survived. Eventually, while touring the United States, accompanying
Lucienne Boyer
Lucienne Boyer (18 August 1901 – 6 December 1983) was a French diseuseMansfield News Journal 9 November 1934 pg. 20 and singer, best known for her song " Parlez-moi d'amour". Her impresario was Bruno Coquatrix.
Early career
Born as Émilienne-H ...
, contemporary of
Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf (, , ; born Édith Giovanna Gassion, ; December 19, 1915– October 10, 1963) was a French singer, lyricist and actress. Noted as France's national chanteuse, she was one of the country's most widely known international stars.
Pia ...
, he met his first wife pianist/composer
Gloria Shayne with whom in 1962, he composed the Christmas song "Do You Hear What I Hear?"
Regney and Shayne also composed "
Rain, Rain, Go Away", "
Sweet Little Darlin'
Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, keton ...
", and "
What's The Use of Crying". He led an ensemble that backed Kay Lande's vocals on ''For Sleepyheads Only'' (1962). He wrote the English lyrics for
The Singing Nun
Jeanne-Paule Marie "Jeannine" Deckers (17 October 1933 – 29 March 1985), better known as Sœur Sourire () and often called The Singing Nun in English-speaking countries, was a Belgian singer-songwriter and a member of the Dominican Order in ...
(Soeur Sourire)'s famous song "
Dominique
"Dominique" is a 1963 French language popular song, written and performed by the Belgian female singer Jeannine Deckers, better known as Sœur Sourire ("Sister Smile" in French) or The Singing Nun. The song is about Saint Dominic, a Spanish-bo ...
", the very name of his second wife, Dominique Gillain, though that is not to say that he co-wrote the song, which he had claimed. Together he and Gillain had a son Matthieu, born in 1982. Regney wrote the book and music for a musical biography of French writer
Colette
Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (; 28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954), known mononymously as Colette, was a French author and woman of letters. She was also a mime, actress, and journalist. Colette is best known in the English-speaking world for her ...
as well as other musicals: "Merrimount" and "Landsake". He knew the composers
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud (; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions ...
and
Arthur Honegger
Arthur Honegger (; 10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss composer who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. A member of Les Six, his best known work is probably ''Antigone'', composed between 1924 and 1927 to ...
; studied with
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonically ...
; may have studied with Honegger, and worked at
Le Lido
Le Lido is a cabaret and burlesque show located on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, France. It opened in 1946 at 78 Avenue des Champs-Élysées and moved to its current location in 1977. It is known for its exotic shows including dancers, singers ...
in Paris. In the mid-1960s, he led a group known as the Noel Regney Singers that released a children's album featuring folk songs in French and English called "Songs that Help You Learn French". There was a Spanish-English version as well.
Noël died on 22 November 2002 in Brewster, New York, of complications from
Pick's disease
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD), or frontotemporal degeneration disease, or frontotemporal neurocognitive disorder, encompasses several types of dementia involving the progressive degeneration of frontal and temporal lobes. FTDs broadly present as ...
.
References
External links
Noel Regney obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Regney, Noel
People from Ridgefield, Connecticut
2002 deaths
French male songwriters
Deaths from Pick's disease
Deaths from dementia in New York (state)
1922 births
20th-century French male musicians
German Army personnel of World War II
French Resistance members
Deserters
French emigrants to the United States