Le Téléphone Pleure

"Le Téléphone Pleure" was a 1974 hit single by French artist Claude François. It was released on Disques Flèche/Phonogram. The song was re-recorded in English as "Tears on the Telephone" and was a hit in the British charts[1] in 1976.

"Le Téléphone Pleure"
Single by Claude François
from the album Le Mal-aimé
B-side
  • "Quand la pluie finira de tomber"
  • "Heureusement, tu penses à moi"
ReleasedOctober 1974
Recorded1974
GenreFrench pop
Length3:58
LabelDisques Flèche, Phonogram (France)
Nobel (Canada)
Poplandia (Spain)
Bradley's Records (UK)
Songwriter(s)Frank Thomas (lyrics)
Jean-Pierre Bourtayre,
Claude François (music)
Claude François singles chronology
"Le Mal-aimé"
(1974)		 "Le Téléphone Pleure"
(1974)		 "Toi et moi contre le monde entier"
(1975)

Italian singer-songwriter Domenico Modugno recorded an Italian version of the song, "Piange... il telefono", in 1975. This version was so successful that a film was made based on its lyrics, Piange... il telefono. It was directed by Lucio De Caro and starred Domenico Modugno, Francesca Guadagno, Marie Yvonne Danaud, Claudio Lippi and János Koós.

Argentine singer King Clave recorded a Spanish version of the song titled "Mi corazón lloró" ("My heart cried"), which topped the Mexican charts in 1975 and was also a hit throughout Latin America. The cast of the musical Belles belles belles also covered Claude François' song.

The song is built on a melodramatic story, in which a man calls his five-year-old daughter on the phone, but without her realizing than the heartbroken caller is actually her father - as he is the estranged husband of the child's mother, who left him before their daughter was born, six years earlier. The end of the story is left ambiguous: the man, faced with his wife's final rejection (as told to him by the child), says: "je serais demain au fond d'un train" (literally, "tomorrow I'll be at the bottom of a train"), which may be interpreted as meaning that the man is either moving away permanently, or that he about to commit suicide. This was made clearer in Modugno's version, where, in his final sung line, he clearly says goodbye to the child - in that version, the last sung word is "addio", usually meant in Italy as "goodbye for ever".

Track list
7-inch single (October 1974 France)
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Le téléphone pleure" (with Frédérique Barkoff)Frank Thomas, Jean-Pierre Bourtayre, Claude François3:58
2."Quand la pluie finira de tomber"Richard Seff, Daniel Seff2:59
7-inch single (1974 Canada)
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Le téléphone pleure" (with Frédérique Barkoff)Frank Thomas, Jean-Pierre Bourtayre, Claude François3:58
2."Heureusement, tu penses à moi"Jean-Michel Rivat, Claude François, Simon Shirak3:30
  • With Jean-Claude Petit and his orchestra

Foreign versions
7-inch single (1975 Spain)
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Llora el teléfono[2]"Frank Thomas, Jean-Pierre Bourtayre, Claude François3:58
2."Chanson populaire"Nicolas Skorsky, Jean-Pierre Bourtayre3:34
7-inch single (1975 UK)
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Tears on the Telephone[3]" (with Kathy Barnet)Frank Thomas, Jean-Pierre Bourtayre, Claude François 
2."Hello Happiness"Roger Greenaway, Les Reed 
7-inch single (1975 Italy)
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Piange... il telefono[4]" (with Francesca Guadagno)Frank Thomas, Jean-Pierre Bourtayre, Claude François 
2."L'avventura"Domenico Modugno 
7-inch single (1975 Brazil)
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."O telefone chora[5]" (with Márcio José and Liriel)Frank Thomas, Jean-Pierre Bourtayre, Claude François 
2."Que será, que será, que será?"Márcio José 

See also

References
  1. Official Charts
  2. Spanish adaptation : Gefingal
  3. English adaptation : Howard Barnes
  4. Italian adaptation : Domenico Modugno
  5. Portuguese adaptation : Márcio José



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