Charles Aznavour Dead at 94

golding76 · ‎05-19-2012

Ah, what a voice. Here he is singing "La Boheme." So many of my friends and family back in "my day" loved listening to him and swooning.

I read that he considered himself a "country singer," but said his country was France. If he had lived in the U.S., he stated that he would have lived in Nashville. Aznavour thought that country music tells the stories of our life, and Nashville was the place for the sort of music he loved and stories he wanted to tell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmrUeGogRbI

Roy Clark sang Aznavour's song "Yesterday (When I Was Young)" Here is Clark's interpretation of Aznavour's classic. Beautiful:

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwhCqmpO0go

blueroses47 · ‎03-09-2010

I was just thinking of him yesterday, I was listening to my music at the gym, listening to him sing "She" , one of my favorites. I was wondering if he was still alive.

I really liked him. "Yesterday when I was Young", and an interesting song "You've Got to Learn".

I had only one of his albums, so I don't know that much of his music, but I really loved that album.

golding76 · ‎05-19-2012

How very odd, bluerose, that you thought of him yesterday. His spirit reached you.

If you had told me he was already dead, I would have believed you. I, too, was surprised he was still alive.

By paying close attention to his life, I note that his family and my late husband's family must have been expelled from Turkey (the Ottoman Empire) at the same time. Charles was born in Paris in 1924, so I had originally reported his age incorrectly as 97.

Oznell · ‎11-08-2014

As soon as I saw that title line on Aznavour, @golding76, I knew you were the author. No one else has quite your knowledgeable eclecticism when it comes to cosmopolitan culture and, for that matter, pop culture.

He was a one of a kind. RIP.

golding76 · ‎05-19-2012

Thank you, oznell. Your generous thoughts are beyond kind.

I keep replaying "La Boheme" and the Roy Clark "Yesterday" and weeping. Ah, life passes by so quickly. I weep not for me but for those whom I have lost and who are fading. Hmm, come to think of it, "fading" includes me, doesn't it?

So many songs left to be sung...

riley1 · ‎03-10-2010

What a beautiful song Roy Clark is singing. Don't know who the other person is but may he RIP. Thank You @Oznell

Oznell · ‎11-08-2014

@riley1, thank you for the acknowledgement, but that was @golding76 who posted those links for us...

Burnsite · ‎03-10-2010

"Death of the Piano Player" (film, dir. Truffaut, 1960) is one of my favorite films. I caught it in reprise theatres in the 1970s.

I am glad he lived such a long and full life. What a beautiful, expressive, lived-in face he had. The camera loved that face.*

I just looked him up. He was born in France of Armenian heritage (original name: Shanoun Varenagh Aznavourian) and shortened his name but did not falsify it. He began as a writer of torch songs for the great Edith Piaf, my favorite French vocalist.

He hoped to continue singing to 100, but 94 is a great run. May he RIP.

* still from the film:

Coquille · ‎07-20-2011

Whenever I listen to Charles A., I'm taken to a special place! Recently, I've been listening to him singing, " Parce Que Tu Crois". It's from the movie, Oceans 8. You will be missed! RIP.

I feel the same when I listen to Luciano Pavarotti

There were and are many great singers, male and female but those two men to me, were a cut above all the rest.

Happiness is not a destination, it is a way of life.