"Comment te dire adieu" ( English: "How to Say Goodbye to You") is a French adaptation of the song "It Hurts to Say Goodbye". It was originally recorded by

Françoise Hardy Françoise Madeleine Hardy (; 17 January 1944 – 11 June 2024) was a French singer-songwriter, actress, and author. She was known for singing melancholic, sentimental ballads. Hardy rose to prominence in the early 1960s as a leading figure in F ...

in 1968. "It Hurts to Say Goodbye" was written by Arnold Goland, probably best known for his co-operation with

Phil Spector Harvey Phillip Spector (December 26, 1939 – January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter who is best known for pioneering recording practices in the 1960s, followed by his trials and conviction for murder in the 2000s. S ...

, and the American producer and songwriter Jacob "Jack" Gold (1921–1992). In 1966 it was recorded by

Margaret Whiting Margaret Eleanor Whiting (July 22, 1924 – January 10, 2011) was an American singer of popular music who gained popularity in the 1940s and 1950s.Mapes, Jillian.Margaret Whiting, Iconic Standards Singer, Dies at 86. ''Billboard'', January 12, ...

on her album ''The Wheel of Hurt''. In 1967 a release by

Vera Lynn Dame Vera Margaret Lynn (; 20 March 1917 – 18 June 2020) was an English singer and entertainer whose musical recordings and performances were very popular during World War II. She is Honorific nicknames in popular music, honorifically known ...

reached No. 7 on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

''s

Adult Contemporary chart The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to ''Billboard'' by stati ...

. These versions were interpreted in the style of a

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

, as was the first French version of the song with lyrics by Michèle Vendôme titled "Avant de dire adieu" which was released by

Ginette Reno Ginette Reno (born Ginette Raynault; 28 April 1946) is a Canadian people, Canadian singer, songwriter and actress. She has received nominations for the Genie Award, Genie and Gemini Awards and is a multi-recipient of the Juno Award. She is a ...

on her 1967 album ''Quelqu'un à aimer''. More beat driven were the instrumental interpretations by Brazil's

Walter Wanderley Walter Wanderley (; born Walter Jose Wanderley Mendonça, May 12, 1932 – September 4, 1986) was a Brazilian organist and pianist, best known for his lounge and bossa nova music and for his instrumental version of the song '' Summer Samba'' wh ...

, dominated by the

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

he is known for, and the Frenchman

Caravelli Caravelli (born Claude Vasori; 12 September 1930 – 1 April 2019) was a French orchestra leader, composer and arranger of orchestral music. Biography He was born on 12 September 1930 in Paris. The son of an Italian father and a French mother, ...

, who focused more on

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

, both published in the same year. The Jack Gold Orchestra & Chorus version, which was in a style similar to the Caravelli release, made No. 28 on the ''Billboard''

Easy Listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit s ...

charts in 1969. Françoise Hardy heard an "American instrumental version" of the song and her manager asked

Serge Gainsbourg Serge Gainsbourg (; born Lucien Ginsburg; 2 April 1928 – 2 March 1991) was a French singer-songwriter, actor, composer, and director. Regarded as one of the most important figures in French pop, he was renowned for often provocative rel ...

to provide suitable lyrics for it. The resultant "Comment te dire adieu" was combined with an arrangement relatively closer to the Caravelli version and included on Hardy's 1968 album. Hardy also recorded the song in

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

("Il pretesto", 1968) and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

("Was mach' ich ohne dich", 1970; released on the album ''

Träume ''Träume'' is the second and last studio album in German language by the French popular singer Françoise Hardy. Released only in Germany during January 1970. The record was published in no other country making it extremely rare and sought after. ...

'', 1970.) The French lyrics are notable for their uncommon rhymes in "ex", within the subject of the song having a sense of "ex" as in "ex-boyfriend". A German version with new lyrics, titled "Ich sage dir adieu", was released by veteran Greek-German singer

Vicky Leandros Vasiliki Papathanasiou (, ; born 23 August 1949), known professionally as Vicky Leandros (, ), is a Greek singer living in Germany. She is the daughter of singer, musician and composer Leandros Papathanasiou (also known as Leo Leandros as well ...

on her 2010 album ''Zeitlos''.

Formats and track listings

French SP

*Production Asparagus/

Disques Vogue Disques Vogue was a jazz record company founded in France by Léon Cabat and Charles Delaunay in 1947, the year after the American Vogue label ceased. They originally specialized in jazz, featuring American performers such as Sidney Bechet, ...

/Vogue international industries (V.45-1552), 1968. **A-side: "Comment te dire adieu" ("It Hurts to Say Goodbye"), (ad. lyrics from Jack Gold:

/ music: Arnold Goland, arr. S. Gainsbourg) – 2:25 **B-side: "L'Anamour" (lyrics and music: Serge Gainsbourg) – 2:14

English SP

*Asparagus Production/

United Artists United Artists (UA) is an American film production and film distribution, distribution company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, it was founded in February 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford an ...

(UP 35011 ), 1969. **A-side: "Comment te dire adieu" ("It Hurts to Say Goodbye"), (ad. lyrics from Jack Gold: Serge Gainsbourg / music: Arnold Goland, arr. S. Gainsbourg) – 2:25 **B-side: "La Mer, les étoiles et le vent" (lyrics and music: Françoise Hardy) – 1:50

French EP

*Production Asparagus/disques Vogue/Vogue international industries (EPL 8652), 1968. **A1: "Comment te dire adieu" ("It Hurts to Say Goodbye"), (ad. lyrics from Jack Gold: Serge Gainsbourg / music: Arnold Goland, arr. S. Gainsbourg) – 2:25 **A2: "Il vaut mieux une petite maison dans la main, qu'un grand château dans les nuages" (lyrics: Jean-Max Rivière / music: Gérard Bourgeois) – 2:23 **B1: "Suzanne", (ad. lyrics from

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...

Graeme Allwright Graeme Allwright (7 November 1926 – 16 February 2020) was a New Zealand-born French singer and songwriter. He became popular in the 1960s and 1970s as a French language interpreter of the songs of American and Canadian songwriters such as Leona ...

/ music: L. Cohen) – 3:08 **B2: "La Mer, les étoiles et le vent" (lyrics and music: Françoise Hardy) – 1:50

Jimmy Somerville version

The song was covered in 1989 by former

Bronski Beat Bronski Beat were a British synth-pop band formed in 1983 in London, England. The initial lineup, which recorded the majority of their hits, consisted of Scottish musicians Jimmy Somerville (vocals) and Steve Bronski (keyboards, percussion) and ...

and

Communards The Communards () were members and supporters of the short-lived 1871 Paris Commune formed in the wake of the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. After the suppression of the Commune by the French Army in May 1871, 43,000 Communards we ...

singer

Jimmy Somerville James William Somerville (born 22 June 1961) is a singer from Glasgow, Scotland who rose to prominence in the 1980s with the synth-pop groups Bronski Beat and the Communards. With Bronski Beat, Somerville achieved commercial success with the 1 ...

, as a duet with

June Miles-Kingston June Patricia Miles-Kingston is a British singer and drummer, best known for her work with various successful bands and singers in the 1980s. She was a founding member of the post-punk group the Mo-dettes, which lasted from 1979 to 1982, and lat ...

. It was a hit in the UK, reaching number 14 on the UK Singles Chart, helping Somerville's solo career take off. David Giles of ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as ''Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music We ...

'' deemed Somerville's cover as "a slightly housey version", adding: "The sheer vivacity of his performance sends the record soaring off the turntable, and the orchestral bits topped with spoken French are out of this universe".

Track listing

* 7" single # "Comment te dire adieu" (7" version) — 3:35 # "Tell the World" — 4:12

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

In France, the single reportedly sold at least 250,000 copies.

Kate Ryan version

In 2016, Belgian dance singer

Kate Ryan Kate Ryan (born Katrien Verbeeck, 22 July 1980) is a Belgian singer and songwriter, and the winner of a World Music Award. She began her singing career in 2001 and later found fame with a string of dance hits. These included covers, mostly of ...

covered the song and released it as a stand-alone single via

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

on 24 June 2016, under

CNR Music CNR is a Dutch audio and video label. It was founded in 1937 as CNR Records by Cornelis Nicolaas Rood, who made his fortune as a producer of lampshades and other lighting materials. Rood regarded his record label merely as a hobby, but things ch ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. It was produced by Yves Jongen a.k.a. Yves Gaillard and Soufiane Amrani "Amro". A music video accompanied the song, premiered via

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

on 29 June 2016.Kate Ryan - Comment Te Dire Adieu - YouTube
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References

External links

*

', Lyrics on German fan site, (per 12 November 2017) *
Jack Gold Discography, Writing-Arrangement Credits
',

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

, (per 12 November 2017) *
Cover versions of It Hurts to Say Goodbye by Margaret Whiting
', SecondHandSongs, (per 12 November 2017) *
Arnold Goland
',

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

, (per 12 November 2017) {{authority control Songs about parting 1966 songs 1968 singles Françoise Hardy songs Vera Lynn songs 1989 debut singles Jimmy Somerville songs Songs written by Serge Gainsbourg Disques Vogue singles London Records singles Male–female vocal duets