"Padam, padam..." is a song originally released in 1951 by the French singer and lyricist

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 ...

. The melody of the song was originally composed in 1942 by Norbert Glanzberg, and lyrics were later added by .
The lyrics tell the story of a person's evocative memories of an alluring melody, an allusion to a past lover.

Composition

The song uses a 3/4

waltz The waltz ( , meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom dance, ballroom and folk dance, in triple (3/4 time, time), performed primarily in closed position. Along with the ländler and allemande, the waltz was sometimes referred to by the ...

feel to create a "maddeningly catchy" effect. The person singing the song experiences a

nostalgic Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a neoclassical compound derived from Greek, consisting of (''nóstos''), a Homeric word meaning "homecomi ...

, wistful

music-related memory Musical memory refers to the ability to remember music-related information, such as melodic content and other progressions of tones or pitches. The differences found between linguistic memory and musical memory have led researchers to theorize that ...

. She describes how a certain evocative, memorable melody evokes in her memories of a former lover, hence the

onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia (or rarely echoism) is a type of word, or the process of creating a word, that phonetics, phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Common onomatopoeias in English include animal noises such as Oin ...

of "padam, padam..." of one's heartbeat.

Track listings

7-inch EP EMI Columbia ESRF 1023 (1954, France) # "Padam padam..." (3:17) # "Jézébel" (3:07) # "Mariage" (4:16) # "Les amants de Venise" (3:10)

Cover versions

The song was covered, among others, by Tony Martin,

Mireille Mathieu Mireille Mathieu (; born July 22, 1946) is a French singer. She has recorded over 1,200 songs in eleven languages, with more than 122 million records sold worldwide. Biography and career Early years Mireille Mathieu was born on July 22, 1946, ...

, Michael Heltau,

Chimène Badi Chimène Badi (; born 30 October 1982), also known by her mononym Chimène, is a French singer of Algerian descent. Early life Badi was born in Melun in the Paris suburbs to a family of Algerian origin. She spent her entire childhood in the s ...

Patricia Kaas Patricia Noëlle Kaas (; born 5 December 1966) is a French singer. Her music is a mix of pop, cabaret, jazz, and chanson. Since the appearance of her 1988 debut album '' Mademoiselle chante...,'' Kaas won 6 Victoires de la Musique awards and ...

, and Ann Christy. Another cover in 1988 was sung together by members of Italian bands Litfiba, Violet Eves, and Moda. In 2023, Yeong Taek Seo, a member of covered the song.

References

* {{Authority control 1951 songs French songs Édith Piaf songs Patricia Kaas songs Mireille Mathieu songs