"L'Accordéoniste" is a song made famous by

Édith Piaf Édith Giovanna Gassion (19 December 1915 – 10 October 1963), known as Édith Piaf (), was a French singer and lyricist best known for performing songs in the cabaret and modern chanson genres. She is widely regarded as France's greatest popu ...

. It was written in 1940 by Michel Emer, who then offered it to her.

Commercial performance

"L'Accordéoniste" became the first million-seller in Piaf's career.

Composition

The song tells a story of a prostitute who loves an

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

player (and the music he plays, namely a dance called

java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

). Then he has to leave for the war. She finds refuge in music, dreaming about how they will live together when he comes back.

Track listings

10" shellac single Polydor 524 669 (France, 1940) # "Escales" # "L'Accordéoniste"

References

* 1940 songs French songs Édith Piaf songs Songs about prostitutes Songs about musicians {{authority control