Choucoune (song)
Encyclopedia
"Choucoune" is a 19th century Haiti
an song composed by Michel Mauleart Monton with lyrics from a poem by Oswald Durand
. It was rewritten with English lyrics in the 20th century as "Yellow Bird."
's most famous works is the 1883 "Choucoune
," a lyrical poem praising the beauty of a Haiti
an woman of that nickname. Michel Mauleart Monton, an American
-born pianist
with a Haitian father and an American mother, composed music for the poem in 1893 appropriating some French
and Caribbean
fragments to create his tune; the musical piece "Choucoune" was first performed in Port-au-Prince
on 14 May 14 1893. The song became a popular slow méringue
(mereng) song in Haiti and was prominently showcased during the bicentennial celebrations of Port-au-Prince in 1949.
Choir, Norman Luboff having arranged the song in the calypso
style which had become popular in the English speaking world in the mid-1950s. The lyrics for "Yellow Bird" by Alan
and Marilyn Bergman
have no connection with the narrative of the Durand poem other than that poem featuring the words "ti zwazo" (little birds) in its refrain on which account the original Haitian song is sometimes called "Ti Zwazo" or "Ti Zwezo". The song became a minor hit at #70 on the Billboard Hot 100
for the Mills Brothers
in 1959; its most successful incarnation came in the summer of 1961 when the Arthur Lyman
Group reached #4 with their Hawaii
an flavored instrumental version which bested a rival instrumental single release by Lawrence Welk
(#61).
"Yellow Bird" has also been recorded by Keely Smith
, Roger Whitaker, Roger Williams
, Johnny Tillotson
and Paul Clayton. The song continues to be popularly associated with calypso and the Caribbean and is often performed by steelpan
bands but some versions, such as Chris Isaak
's from Baja Sessions
, evidence a Hawaiian flavor.
"Yellow Bird" was sung by Vivian Vance
on a two-part Here's Lucy
episode, "Lucy Goes Hawaiian," which aired February 15 and Feb. 22, 1971. Vance sang it in a high falsetto, with a calypso beat, dressed in yellow and sprouting feathers like a canary (including a long tail feather) perched on a swing decorated as a nest, that lowered her in the beginning of the song and lifted her at the end. A long spoken-word mid-section features Vance riffing on the types of male birds she'd like to hook up with. A clip of this version is on YouTube.
The 23 October 1989 broadcast of the CBS
TV series Murphy Brown
entitled "Miles Big Adventure" ends with guest star Yeardley Smith
serenading her unwilling object of desire Miles Silverberg with a snippet of "Yellow Bird".
"To Bowl or Not To Bowl," an episode of The Looney Tunes Show
that first aired on July 27, 2011, featured an uptempo, ska-like
version of "Yellow Bird" during the Merrie Melodies song segment of the same name performed by Holland Greco.
had a 1957 single release entitled "Don't Ever Love Me" which set different English lyrics (written by Lord Burgess
to Michel Mauleart Monton's setting for "Choucune", initially the B-side
of "Mama Look At Bubu" (#11), "Don't Ever Love Me" itself entered the Billboard Hot 100 at #90.
This song can also be found on the CD album "Harry Belafonte - All Time Greatest Hits Vol. I" (track #2).
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
an song composed by Michel Mauleart Monton with lyrics from a poem by Oswald Durand
Oswald Durand
Oswald Durand was a Haitian poet and politician. Durand is said to be "to Haiti what Shakespeare is to England and Dante to Italy." Among his most famous works are Choucoune, a lyrical poem praising the beauty of a Haitian woman, and Chant National, a lyrical historic poem which became as popular...
. It was rewritten with English lyrics in the 20th century as "Yellow Bird."
Choucoune
One of Oswald DurandOswald Durand
Oswald Durand was a Haitian poet and politician. Durand is said to be "to Haiti what Shakespeare is to England and Dante to Italy." Among his most famous works are Choucoune, a lyrical poem praising the beauty of a Haitian woman, and Chant National, a lyrical historic poem which became as popular...
's most famous works is the 1883 "Choucoune
Choucoune (poem)
"Choucoune" is an 1883 poem by Haitian Oswald Durand. Its words are in Haitian Creole and are the lyrics to the song "Choucoune" which was later rewritten in English as "Yellow Bird", the title based on the words "ti zwazo" from the Durand poem....
," a lyrical poem praising the beauty of a Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
an woman of that nickname. Michel Mauleart Monton, an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-born pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
with a Haitian father and an American mother, composed music for the poem in 1893 appropriating some French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
fragments to create his tune; the musical piece "Choucoune" was first performed in Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....
on 14 May 14 1893. The song became a popular slow méringue
Méringue
Méringue, also spelled "mereng" in Creole, is a music genre native to Haiti . It is musically and historically connected to Dominican Merengue. It is a guitar-based style , and is generally sung in Haitian Creole.-History:The history of méringue is similar to that of much Caribbean popular music...
(mereng) song in Haiti and was prominently showcased during the bicentennial celebrations of Port-au-Prince in 1949.
Yellow Bird
The English rendering of "Choucoune": "Yellow Bird", first appeared on the album Calypso Holiday, a 1957 release by the Norman LuboffNorman Luboff
Norman Luboff was an American music arranger, music publisher, and choir director.-Early years:Norman Luboff was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1917. He studied piano as a child and participated in his high school chorus. Luboff studied at the University of Chicago and Central College in Chicago...
Choir, Norman Luboff having arranged the song in the calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
style which had become popular in the English speaking world in the mid-1950s. The lyrics for "Yellow Bird" by Alan
Alan Bergman
Alan Bergman is an American lyricist and songwriter.-Life & career:Born in Brooklyn, New York, he studied at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UCLA. His involvement in the entertainment industry began in the early 1950s as a director of children's television shows...
and Marilyn Bergman
Marilyn Bergman
Marilyn Bergman is a composer, songwriter and author.She was born Marilyn Keith in Brooklyn, New York and studied psychology and English at New York University...
have no connection with the narrative of the Durand poem other than that poem featuring the words "ti zwazo" (little birds) in its refrain on which account the original Haitian song is sometimes called "Ti Zwazo" or "Ti Zwezo". The song became a minor hit at #70 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
for the Mills Brothers
Mills Brothers
The Mills Brothers, sometimes billed as The Four Mills Brothers, were an American jazz and pop vocal quartet of the 20th century who made more than 2,000 recordings that combined sold more than 50 million copies, and garnered at least three dozen gold records...
in 1959; its most successful incarnation came in the summer of 1961 when the Arthur Lyman
Arthur Lyman
Arthur Lyman was an American jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His group popularized a style of faux-Polynesian music during the 1950s and 1960s which later became known as exotica...
Group reached #4 with their Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
an flavored instrumental version which bested a rival instrumental single release by Lawrence Welk
Lawrence Welk
Lawrence Welk was an American musician, accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, who hosted The Lawrence Welk Show from 1955 to 1982...
(#61).
"Yellow Bird" has also been recorded by Keely Smith
Keely Smith
Keely Smith is an American jazz and popular music singer who enjoyed popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. She collaborated with, among others, Louis Prima and Frank Sinatra.-Career:...
, Roger Whitaker, Roger Williams
Roger Williams (pianist)
Roger Williams was an American popular music pianist. As of 2004, he had released 116 albums.-Biography:...
, Johnny Tillotson
Johnny Tillotson
Johnny Tillotson is an American singer and songwriter. He enjoyed his greatest success in the early 1960s, when he scored 9 top-ten hits on the pop, country and adult contemporary billboard charts including "Poetry In Motion" and the self-penned "It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'"...
and Paul Clayton. The song continues to be popularly associated with calypso and the Caribbean and is often performed by steelpan
Steelpan
Steelpans is a musical instrument originating from The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago...
bands but some versions, such as Chris Isaak
Chris Isaak
Christopher Joseph "Chris" Isaak is an American rock musician and occasional actor.-Early life:Isaak was born in Stockton, California, the son of Dorothy , a potato chip factory worker, and Joe Isaak, a forklift driver. Isaak's mother is Italian American, originating from Genoa...
's from Baja Sessions
Baja Sessions
Baja Sessions is a 1996 album by Chris Isaak, featuring largely acoustic arrangements. The album contains a large number of covers, many of which are classic songs which refer to, or are styled to suggest tropical, laid-back settings, such as the Hawaiian-tinged "Sweet Leilani" and "South of the...
, evidence a Hawaiian flavor.
"Yellow Bird" was sung by Vivian Vance
Vivian Vance
Vivian Roberta Jones was an American television and theater actress and singer. Often referred to as “TV’s most beloved second banana,” she is best known for her role as Ethel Mertz, sidekick to Lucille Ball on the American television sitcom I Love Lucy, and as Vivian Bagley on The Lucy...
on a two-part Here's Lucy
Here's Lucy
Here's Lucy is Lucille Ball's third network television sitcom. It ran on CBS from 1968 to 1974.-Background:Though The Lucy Show was still hugely popular during the previous season, finishing in the top five of the Nielsen Ratings , Ball opted to end that series at the end of that season and create...
episode, "Lucy Goes Hawaiian," which aired February 15 and Feb. 22, 1971. Vance sang it in a high falsetto, with a calypso beat, dressed in yellow and sprouting feathers like a canary (including a long tail feather) perched on a swing decorated as a nest, that lowered her in the beginning of the song and lifted her at the end. A long spoken-word mid-section features Vance riffing on the types of male birds she'd like to hook up with. A clip of this version is on YouTube.
The 23 October 1989 broadcast of the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
TV series Murphy Brown
Murphy Brown
Murphy Brown is an American situation comedy which aired on CBS from November 14, 1988, to May 18, 1998, for a total of 247 episodes. The program starred Candice Bergen as the eponymous Murphy Brown, a famous investigative journalist and news anchor for FYI, a fictional CBS television...
entitled "Miles Big Adventure" ends with guest star Yeardley Smith
Yeardley Smith
Yeardley Smith is a French-born American actress, voice actress, writer and painter. She is best known for her long-running role as Lisa Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons....
serenading her unwilling object of desire Miles Silverberg with a snippet of "Yellow Bird".
"To Bowl or Not To Bowl," an episode of The Looney Tunes Show
The Looney Tunes Show
The Looney Tunes Show is a packaged show, created for Cartoon Network, and broadcast from 2002 to 2005. It was produced by Warner Bros. Animation. The show featured cartoon shorts from the original Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoon series produced from 1930 to 1969.-External links:...
that first aired on July 27, 2011, featured an uptempo, ska-like
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
version of "Yellow Bird" during the Merrie Melodies song segment of the same name performed by Holland Greco.
Don't Ever Love Me
Harry BelafonteHarry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...
had a 1957 single release entitled "Don't Ever Love Me" which set different English lyrics (written by Lord Burgess
Lord Burgess
Irving Louis Burgie, better known as Lord Burgess, is a songwriter, born in Brooklyn, New York in 1926, or possibly on July 28, 1924. His mother was from Barbados and his father was from Virginia....
to Michel Mauleart Monton's setting for "Choucune", initially the B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
of "Mama Look At Bubu" (#11), "Don't Ever Love Me" itself entered the Billboard Hot 100 at #90.
This song can also be found on the CD album "Harry Belafonte - All Time Greatest Hits Vol. I" (track #2).
External links
- "Yellow Bird" at Calypso: A World Music site. Accessed 20 February 2007.
- Oswald Durand's Original Creole Poem and a Short History are available at Webster University's Haiti-archive. Accessed 27 April 2009.