Today’s classic song of the day is an instrumental written by a Frenchman and recorded by a French orchestra leader. The song is “Soul Coaxing” and, when it was released in the U.S. in February of 1968, it went to #37 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #4 on Billboard’s Easy Listening chart.
I’ll admit I wasn’t familiar with this one, although the melody seemed familiar. It came out at about the same time as another instrumental by a French orchestra leader, Paul Mauriat’s “Love is Blue.”
“Soul Coaxing” (“Âme câline” in the original French) was written by French singer/songwriter Michel Polnareff. It was recorded by Raymond Lefèvre and His Orchestra. Lefèvre was a popular orchestra leader in France. Polnareff wrote lyrics (and included vocals on his own recording of the song), but the track gained the most popularity as an instrumental.
The lyrics, in English, go something like this:
A tender soul
Strolling through the calm night
Humming a romantic tune
For the one who sleeps and abandons meTender soul, my tender soul, why are you hiding?
Tender soul, my tender soul, come back, don’t leave me again
In this translation Âme câline translates to either tender soul or coaxing soul. It’s not exact.
Here’s Michel Polnareff’s original French recording of “Âme câline” from 1967. It reached #4 on the French charts.
