The original lyrics for “L’amour est bleu” were penned by Pierre Cour, but not used in the English versions. The song was originally penned by in 1967 by Andre Popp, who was sort of a French version of Herb Alpert. In reality, “Love is Blue” isn’t American Pop at all…but rather French pop, or more specifically, Popp. The answer to that final question, as you’ll see, is best described as “huge.” While we were assembling that piece, we uncovered the fact that one of his chart hits from the late 1960s (when Martino was a constant on the “Easy Listening” charts) was “Love Is Blue.” This led to a little side study: “Who was Paul Mauriat?” “Who wrote this thing anyway?” “Where did it come from?” and last but not least, “Just how big was this song?” When we featured this song, “Love Is Blue,” it had been on the back burner at for a while, after publishing a feature/tribute article on legendary vocalist Al Martino to commemorate his passing.
