Mamy Blue

"Mamy Blue" (later aka "Mammy Blue") is the title of an international hit from 1971–72 for several artists.

The song was originally written with French lyrics in 1970 by veteran French songwriter Hubert Giraud; he conceived the song in his car waiting out a Parisian traffic jam and had completed its demo within a few days. After four months the first recorded version of "Mamy Blue" was made - with Italian lyrics - by Ivana Spagna marking that singer's recording debut.

In May 1971 Alain Milhaud, a French record producer based in Spain, acquired the song for Los Pop-Tops, a Spanish group he managed. Milhaud produced the Pop-Tops recording of "Mamy Blue" in a session in London after the group's frontman Phil Trim wrote English lyrics for the song. The French Barclay label expediently had the song covered by both Joël Daydé (fr) and Nicoletta.

The Daydé version - featuring Phil Trim's English lyric - was recorded at Olympic Sound Studio in London and the Decca Studio in Paris: Wally Stott was the arranger. Nicoletta's version featured the original French lyrics written by Hubert Giraud who himself produced Nicoletta's recording.

Chart success

The Pop-Tops and Joël Daydé both reached #1 on the French charts with "Mamy Blue" while the Nicoletta version rose as high as #4 affording the singer her career record. Both the Pop-Tops and Daydé versions became concurrent major hits in several other territories including Belgium where the Pop-Tops and Dayde's versions reached #1 on respectively the Dutch and French chart with Pop-Tops reaching #3 on the latter, the Netherlands where Pop-Tops reached #3 and Daydé #13, Norway where Pop-Tops reached #1 and Daydé #3 and Sweden where Pop-Tops reached #1 and Daydé #6. In Spain Daydé's English version of "Mamy Blue" reached #2 while Pop-Tops reached #1 with a specially recorded version of the song in Spanish.

In Germany the Pop-Tops spent ten weeks at #1 while the Daydé version only charted peripherally at #40 while a German rendering recorded by Ricky Shayne afforded Shayne his best ever German chart showing with a #7 peak. The Pop-Tops also rendered "Mamy Blue" in Italian with a resultant #1 in Italy where a local cover by Johnny Dorelli also charted at #28: another Italian cover by Dalida failed to chart as did the English version by Ricky Shayne in its Italian release. Ricky Shayne's English version did appear in the French Top Ten (peak: #8) with the Daydé, Nicoletta and Pop Tops versions and also charted in Brazil (#1) and Japan, selling 500,000 copies in the latter territory where the Pop Tops version had also been a hit at #2.

The Pop Tops English version also reached #1 in Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland; in Denmark the song also reached the Top Ten via a cover by Roger Whittaker which also reached #4 in Finland where the version by Pop Tops and a Finnish rendering by Kirka Babitzin also reached the Top Ten.

The Joël Daydé version of "Mamy Blue" reached #2 in Australia, the only evident territory where Daydé did not have to vie with Pop Tops although the cover by Roger Whittaker and another by James Darren did well enough regionally to register on Australia's national chart with respective peaks of #53 and #47. The song was also recorded by Australian singer Al Head (as "Oh Mamy Blue") around the same time, one of only two singles he recorded.^[1] In South Africa "Mamy Blue" was recorded by a session group billed as Charisma: produced by Graeme Beggs, this version spent twelve weeks at #1 making it the second longest running South African #1 hit. Otherwise "Mamy Blue" did not have a strong national chart showing in the English-speaking world: in the UK the Pop Tops vied with a cover by Roger Whittaker with neither version reaching the Top 30 respective chart peaks being #35 and #31; in the US the Pop Tops was the sole charting version with a #57 peak on the Hot 100 in Billboard whose Easy Listening chart afforded the track a #28 peak; in Canada Pop Tops vied with a cover by session group Oak Island Treasury Department - these versions respectively peaking at #42 and #68 - while a cover by Roger Whittaker of the original French version was a hit on Canada's French charts reaching #2. "Mamy Blue" returned to the Hot 100 in 1973 via a remake by the Stories which peaked at #50: this version charted in Canada at #47.

Other covers

The English version of "Mamy Blue" has also been recorded by Horace Andy, Julio Iglesias, Bobby Curtola, Vicky Leandros, Genya Ravan, Demis Roussos, Muslim Magomayev, Laima Vaikule and the Les Humphries Singers; Nicoletta also recorded the English version in addition to the French. Celine Dion and Lara Fabian have both made recordings of the original French version, which was remade in 2004 by Neje to reach #75 on the French charts. Jacques Desrosiers (Patof) has made a cover in French with different lyrics has "Patof Blue". The Spanish version has also been recorded by José Mercé, Daniel Diges and Twiggy (es) while Ricky Shayne (de), Roberto Blanco (de), Frank Farian and Bata Ilic (de) have each made recordings of the German version. The Finnish version of "Mamy Blue" has also been recorded by Kirka 1971 and by Fredi 1972. German guitarist Ricky King recorded an instrumental version.

List of additional regional covers

Sampling

The song has been sampled in other recordings. Notably, in 2011, Didier Morville known as Joeystarr, the former vocalist of Suprême NTM made a new revamped rap version of the hit "Mamy Blue" he named "Mamy" with altogether new lyrics. "Mamy" heavily samples on the track mainly that of Nicoletta. The track appeared on the rapper's album titled Egomaniac

See also

• List of French number-one hits of 1971
• List of number-one hits of 1971 (Germany)

References

External links

• Pop-Tops: Mamy Blue at Discogs (list of releases)
• Mamy Blue charts worldwide