Mistral gagnant (song)

"Mistral gagnant"
Single by Renaud
from the album Mistral gagnant
Released	1985
Length	2:45
Label	Virgin Records
Writer(s)	Renaud Séchan
Producer(s)	Jean-Philippe Goude
Renaud singles chronology
"" "Mistral gagnant" (1985)

"Mistral gagnant is the title song from French singer Renaud's 1985 album Mistral gagnant. In the song, Renaud sings to his young daughter Lolita Séchan about his own childhood and realizes that time flies as will fly away the laughs of his daughter as a child.

This broad theme plus the very simple music make this song one of the classics among Renaud's "tender" songs.

Background

A mistral gagnant was a kind of famous candy involving lottery. Some of them were "winning" (gagnant) and one could get another one for free. At his adult age, these candies were not on sale anymore.

Renaud says that he never intended to include the song on his album eventually called Mistral gagnant. He reasoned that the lyrics were just too personal and would not interest the general public. Calling his wife Dominique from the studio while recording his prospective album, he sang her parts of the song on the telephone. After his wife heard it, she loved the song and threatened him: "Si tu ne l'enregistres pas, je te quitte..." (meaning if you don't record this song, I will leave you).^[1]

Track list

1. Side A: "Mistral gagnant" (2:45)
2. Side B: "Le retour de la pépette" (3:51)

Covers

The song has been subject of many covers.

Lara Fabian covered it in her 2003 acoustic concerts at the Olympia in Paris. Her version appeared in En toute intimité album both the CD and DVD both recorded during her concerts on 2 and 3 February 2003.

Other famous covers include those of Yves Duteil, Amel Bent and Jean-Louis Aubert.

Live performances

There were also live performances by Vanessa Paradis & Maxime Le Forestier who sang it in a duet in the famous Les Enfoirés series. Their duo interpretation was one of the tracks selected for Les incontournables CD of Le meilleur des Enfoirés - 20 ans.

Jean-Louis Aubert sang it live as a duet with Carla Bruni, during the TV special Docteur Renaud, Mister Renard broadcast on France 2 on 29 March 2003.

The song has been a popular feature in television reality music contest. Contestant Ycare sang it on Nouvelle Star on M6 in 2008 and Camélia Jordana on the same program in 2009.

Cœur de pirate version

"Mistral gagnant"
Single by Cœur de pirate
from the album La Bande à Renaud
Released	2014
Format	Digital download
Recorded	2013-2014
Length	3:04 (Album Version)
Label	Mercury
Writer(s)	Renaud Séchan
Producer(s)	Dominique Blanc-Francard Alain Lanty
Cœur de pirate singles chronology
"" "Mistral gagnant" (2014)

In the 2014 tribute album to Renaud songs called La Bande à Renaud, the singer Cœur de pirate interpreted the song. Her version reached number 13 on SNEP, the official French Singles Chart and was also a hit in Belgium.

Samplings

French rapper Booba used samplings of "Mistral gagnant" twice on his records in two different tracks.

In 2002, he used a sampling of the Renaud song on the track "Le bitume avec une plume" that appeared on his debut album Temps mort. The album made it to number 2 on the French Albums Chart.

He again used a sample of the song in his track "Pitbull", this time from his 2006 album Ouest Side. The album made it to number 1 on the French Albums Chart.

Charts

Cœur de pirate version

Renaud original

References