"Santiano" is a 1961 song, inspired by the sea shanty " Santianna", which uses the same tune. The song tells of a ship from

Saint Malo Saint-Malo (, , ; Gallo: ; ) is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, on the English Channel coast. The walled city had a long history of piracy, earning much wealth from local extortion and overseas adventures. In 1944, the Alli ...

bound to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, which is described as a place of great wealth. The French-language version was popularized first in the 1960s by

Hugues Aufray Hugues Jean Marie Auffray (; born 18 August 1929), better known as Hugues Aufray, is a French singer-songwriter and guitarist. Aufray is known for French language covers of Bob Dylan's songs. Aufray knew Dylan and his work from his time in Ne ...

Original version

In the early 1960s, the song was recorded in French by artist

. It is by far the most well-known shanty in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

and was released in 1961. The song's French lyrics were composed by the French writer Jacques Plante. The song was included on Aufray's 2007 compilation ''Les 50 plus belles chansons''.

Star Academy France

In 2005, the song was covered by Star Academy 5 on the album ''Les Meilleurs Moments'' on which it features as the first track. Released on November 11, 2005 as the second single from the album, it achieved great success in France, where it topped the chart, as well as in Belgium (Wallonia). As of July 2014, it is the 87th best-selling single of the 21st century in France, with 325,000 units sold.

Track listings

; CD single # "Santiano" — 2:39 # "Santiano" (instrumental) — 2:39 ; Digital download # "Santiano" — 2:39

Certifications and sales

Charts

Other versions

The Kingston Trio The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to the late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, ...

performed a cover of the song in 1958, under the title "Santy Anno”. This was the first recorded version with English lyrics, and tells a similar story about a California-bound ship departing from

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

. In 1961, American folk band The Highwaymen recorded their rendition of the English-language “Santiano". "Santiano" was covered by

Laurent Voulzy Lucien Voulzy (, born 18 December 1948), better known as Laurent Voulzy (), is a French singer-songwriter, composer and musician. Life and career Voulzy was born in Paris, France. He originally led the English-pop-influenced Le Temple de Vénus ...

in 2006. It features as 17th track on his studio album ''La Septième Vague''. The "Oktoberklub", a folk-band from the GDR covered the song with unrelated lyrics under the title ''Da sind wir aber immer noch'' ("We're still here"), a pro-communist fight-song. In 2012, German band Santiano, named after Aufray's song, released another cover under the same title and with the same tune as the starting track of their first album. This version lives up to Aufray's appraisal of sailing, with mostly new lyrics. In 2014, Belgian HandsUp producer DJ THT made a cover of "Santiano", featuring the vocals of Angel Lyne and released on Big Beef, a division of Tough Stuff Music. In April 2021, British folk band The Longest Johns released a cover of “Santiano”, performed in collaboration with French neofolk band SKÁLD. This version is sung in both French and English.

References

{{Authority control 1961 singles 2005 singles French-language songs French pop songs SNEP Top Singles number-one singles Star Academy France songs 1961 songs The Kingston Trio songs The Highwaymen (folk band) songs