Regrets (song)
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| “Regrets” | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Single by Mylène Farmer from the album L'Autre... |
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| Released | July 29 1991 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Format | CD maxi 7" single 7" maxi Cassette Digital download (since 2005) |
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| Recorded | 1991, France | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Genre | Pop | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length | 4:45 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Label | Polydor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | Text : Mylène Farmer Music : Laurent Boutonnat |
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| Producer | Laurent Boutonnat | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Certification | Silver France, 1990 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mylène Farmer singles chronology | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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"Regrets" is a 1991 song recorded by the French artist Mylène Farmer in duet with the musician Jean-Louis Murat. Second single from her third studio album L'Autre..., the song was released on July 29, 1989.
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[edit] Background and writing
"Regrets" is the first Farmer's duet. He was scheduled as a second single of the album L'Autre... from "Désenchantée"'s release. The birth of this duet comes from a correspondence by letters[1] between the two singers for a year.[2] Already in 1989, Farmer confessed that she liked Murat's songs and his way of writing. Thus, according to Murat, Farmer had the idea to record a duet with him[3], who accepted after listening to an audiotape of "Regrets" in which Farmer sang the two voices - her own and that of Murat trying to make it deeper. At that time, Farmer said in several broadcasts that she considered Murat as her "brother", her "double"[4], her "twin", and a "poet".[5] [6]
At a while, the recording company had scheduled to release "Regrets" as a second single from the live album Mylenium Tour. A promotional VHS had been sent to the media. However, given differences with Farmer who preferred rather release "Pas le temps de vivre" and the disappointing sales of the previous live singles ( "Ainsi soit je...", "Dessine-moi un mouton"), "Regrets" was finally not commercialized.[5]
Farmer sand "Regrets" during the Mylenium Tour. On this occasion, Farmer performed the song alone on stage, while a red fire was lighted in the hand of the blue statue that was part of the decor.
[edit] Lyrics and music
It is a love song in which two lovers are answering tenderly and with melancholy, while they are separated by the death of one of them (Farmer).[7] Indeed, the song deals with the "very romantic theme of the loss of [the lover]. This loss leaves an unfathomable lack in the one who remains, which invests the world of dreams to regain the lost happiness. Only memories then allow to savour the well-being of the past relationship".[8]
According to Elia Habib, a specialist of French charts, "Regrets" is "a slow [song], which successfully blends the singer's voice [that of Farmer], which merges into the melody to that of Murat, which stands out and thus puts her partner off the scent".[9]
[edit] Music video
The video is a Requiem Publishing and Heathcliff SA production whose length is 6:17. Directed by Laurent Boutonnat who also co-authored the screenplay with Farmer, the video was filmed for two days (in February 1991) in a Jewish cemetery abandoned in Budapest, with a budget of about 35,000 euros. The train, which leads to the cemetery was turned on only for the video which features, in addition to the two singers, a deer.[10] It was broadcast on televion for the fist time on September 9, 1991, in Stars 90, on TF1.[11] In an interview, Murat explained that he had been very surprised by the extreme severity and great professionalism shown by Boutonnat during the video's shooting.[3]
.jpg/220px-Regrets_(video).jpg)
At the beginning of the video, a train stops in front of the entrance of a snow-covered cemetery. Murat gets off from the train and pushes the front gate. He walks in the cemetery, passes a deer and meditates at a grave. When he sits, Farmer comes behind him and puts her hands on his eyes. Murat takes Farmer by the hand, then they run, laugh and huddled one against the other in the cemetery. They doze off on a tombstone, and after a last embrace, they say goodbye to each other and split off. The man then gets on the train and goes away.[12] [13]
According to the analysis made by the magazine Instant-Mag, the video is the "metaphor of a past and regretted love".[14] It "shows the indispensable link between two people, as well as the inevitability of this link : we can be attached to the other person, but also lose her". With this video, Farmer "reached the quintessance of elegant sadness which lives in her work". According to this analysis, the character played by Murat would be alive and would try to meet that played by Farmer who would be dead. To this end, the train would represent the transition from these two worlds. The deer who flees would be "the symbol of the woman's essence", and the bunch of thistles would evoke "the desire to provoke unconditional love with the other person". As for the immaculate snow, it would participate in the gloomy atmosphere of the video and would symbolize "a mild but deadly mask which isolates" the two opposing parties.[15]
[edit] TV and chart performances
For the promotion of the single, one performance was recorded, on the TV show Stars 90, broadcast on TF1 on October 7, 1991.[16]
Although "Regrets" was released in the summer, its sales were on the whole satisfactory. In France, the single started at number 20 on August 24, 1991. Since the following week, it reached the Top 10 and stayed there for ten weeks. It peaked at #3 on September 21 and left the Top 50 after 16 weeks of attendance.[17] "Regrets" was even certified Silver disc by the SNEP on December 19, 1991[18] for a minimum of 250,000 copies sold.[19] In Belgium, the song reached number 2.
[edit] Cover
In December 2003, SitolC participated in the national competition "Télé Poche," then in two castings : "Génération Métis" and "Graine de star". On these occasions, he recorded "Regrets", but his version was not a success.[7]
[edit] Formats and track listings
A-side :
B-side :
A-side :
B-side :
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A-side :
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[edit] Versions
- Official versions
| Version | Length | Album | Remixed by | Year | Comment[7] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Album version | 5:14 | L'Autre... | 1991 | See the previous sections | |
| Single version | 4:45 | Laurent Boutonnat | 1991 | The introduction and musical bridge are shortcuts. | |
| Classic bonus mix (single version) | 4:50 | Laurent Boutonnat | 1991 | The two voices are particularly underlined and the piano replaces the drum kit. | |
| Classic bonus mix (maxi version) | 5:09 | Laurent Boutonnat | 1991 | The two voices are particularly underlined and the piano replaces the drum kit. | |
| Extended club remix | 7:13 | Dance Remixes | Laurent Boutonnat | 1991 | This version contains a long introduction in which the two singers are answering each other with words not sung. Words are actually sampled in a phonetic reversal. All the lyrics from the original version are sung. |
| Sterger dub mix | 5:56 | Laurent Boutonnat | 1991 | All the words are sampled in a phonetic reversal, accompanied by dance sonorities. The name of the remix, 'Sterger', is the reverse of 'Regrets'. | |
| Live version (recorded in 2000) | 5:11 | Mylenium Tour | 2000 | Farmer performed the song alone, including the text sung by Murat in the original version. See Mylenium Tour |
[edit] Credits and personnel
- Text : Mylène Farmer
- Music : Laurent Boutonnat
- Editions : Requiem Publishing
- Recording company : Polydor
- Photography : Marianne Rosensthiel (Sygma)
- Design : Henry Neu / Com'N.B
[edit] Charts, certifications, sales
[edit] References
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