“Milord” or “Ombre de la Rue” (“Shadow of the Street”) is a 1959 song with lyrics by Georges Moustaki, and music by Marguerite Monnot), famously sung by Edith Piaf.
It is a chanson that recounts the feelings of a lower-class “girl of the port” who develops a crush on an elegantly attired apparent upper-class British traveller (or “milord”), whom she has seen walking the streets of the town several times (with a beautiful young woman on his arm), but who has not even noticed her. The singer feels that she is nothing more than a “shadow of the street” (ombre de la rue). Nonetheless, when she talks to him of love, she breaks through his shell; he begins to cry, and she has the job of cheering him up again. She succeeds, and the song ends with her shouting “Bravo! Milord” and “Encore, Milord”.
In connection with the film about Edith Piaf, La Vie en Rose (2007), Moustaki tells in an interview with Le Nouvel Observateur (14 February 2007) about “Milord”: “It was a song I had left in draft form until one day I found the scribbled sheet next to the typewriter Piaf had given me. I resumed to work with it. When I had written the last word I found Edith sitting on a chair behind the bedroom door. She was waiting for me to finish the text (Marguerite Monnot was to compose the music). I was barely 24 years old and, for a year that I had been living with Piaf, I had the image of an upstart gigolo. Edith summoned all the press to Maxim’s to introduce me as the author of “Milord”. When, at the start of the film, she says: “I’m going to record the big con’s song”, and she sings “Milord”, it’s vexing but probable. After I left, she said horrible things about me. She even almost didn’t want to record “Milord”, even though she was aware of its importance. It is the only song in her repertoire that became an international hit. Her impresario Loulou Barrier threatened to stop working with her if she was stupid enough not to record it“. Thus she recorded “Milord” at Capitol Studios, 151W 46th Street, New York in May 1959.
In France “Milord” sold more than 400.000 copies. The song was a No.1 hit in Germany in July 1960. In the UK it reached No.21 (1960), in Sweden No.1 for 8 weeks (15/6-1/8 1960), in Norway No. (1959). In the United States, the song peaked at No.88 in 1961 on the Billboard. By 1969, Milord had sold 25,000 copies in Austria.
“Milord” was one of Germany’s biggest selling songs of 1960. Aside from Edith Piaf’s original French version, there have also been German cover versions by Dalida, Lafe Andersen and Corry Brokkken. Brokken also recorded the song in Dutch. Teresa Brewer recorded an English version of the song which reached No.74 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1961. Benny Hill produced a skit modelled on the musical Cabaret and included the song “Milord,” sung — in English — by Louise English, a member of Hill’s Angels. It is the closing number in the skit and the refrain is repeated as the patrons toast each other and throw confetti.
