The first French song I ever learned was Alouette. Technically it's French Canadian, but still counts. My father went to the trouble of teaching it to me in French with emphasis on correct accent. Now, for those who had any idea what the song was about, I'm certain it was probably a little weird to hear a little kid wander around singing it to herself. It's a song about plucking a lark. If more people knew the translation of the lyrics, it'd probably be banned.
My guess is it became a kid's song in Canada because it teaches body parts (well, you know, if you don't count wings and tails) and then moved to the US. Wikipedia France calls the song a comptine, and I gather the name is supposed to mean something by itself, but I don't know what. As I understand it, they are a song for kids to learn language- much like Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, Bingo, and those songs you sang in school about the days of the week, months, colours.
The next French song I knew came from the Raffi Christmas tape sent by an aunt- Petit Papa Noel. Except I never really knew it. It's harder to sing if you don't know the language, so I probably just sounded like asians who don't know English until it comes to karaoke.
I finally looked the song up and decided if I couldn't find the Raffi version, that was OK. I found the original version, sung by the only famous Corsican who wasn't Napoleon, Tino Rossi. It's a nice little song, even if you don't know French, and the Rossi version has that late 1940's Christmas song feeling to it like those sung by Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole. I believe all Christmas songs should sound like that, though.
This has, of course, sent me on a Christmas in June kick. Usually along about June, as far as you can get from Christmas, I decide it's time to break out the Christmas songs again.
As well as the Christmas songs, it's sent me looking for French songs. I wish I could remember the names of the French pop songs we listened to in my classes. There were one or two that were really good, but I couldn't even think of lines or years.
Two fun things I learnt today: if you press the Escape button while viewing a page in Firefox, it will stop .gif animations from flickering. Also, if you type weather: your zip code into Google, it will give you current conditions and a four day forecast.
I also discovered CafePress, which sounds incredible. You mean all I have to do is submit my artwork and they'll turn it into stuff that will sell itself online for inflated prices that I'll get cash for and I pay nothing?! Sign me up!
The problem, of course, is that I don't know anyone who would buy t-shirts, buttons and magnets from me with my goofy little doodles on them. My old Friend Carin, now, her doodles would sell.