Ennio Morricone's iconic score to Sergio Leone's classic ONCE UPON IN THE WEST featured the great instrumental theme, "Man with the Harmonica." Not content to leave greatness alone, lyrics by Bob Medhi were added (in French).
Singer Stephen Van Dorn bravely tackles the impossible: Cold sight-reading a fairly unsingable tune... in French (apologizes to anyone who actually speaks the language). Mike Farrell mans the piano.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (The Man with the Harmonica) French Lyrics by Bob Medhi
That's probably no worse than those Italian singers who phonetically sang in English on the title themes for some of the spaghetti westerns. Sometimes you can only make out every other word.
This was recorded by a female french singer, Jacqueline Boyer, at the time (1970) and released on a single. She does it much better than the version above. Here's the info for those who might want to seek it out:
Seriously, I really think Stephen van Dorn's spontaneous take on this demonstrates how this tune is indeed singable. I could almost hear the chorus accompanying him. With a few rehearsals (and maybe a little more practice in French), this vocalization could turn into a great recording.
