Mammy Blue

"Mammy Blue" - aka "Mamy Blue" - is the title of an international hit from 1971-72 chiefly via a version by Los Pop Tops.

The song was originally written with French lyrics in 1970 by veteran French songwriter Hubert Giraud; he conceived the song in his car waiting out a Parisian traffic jam and had completed its demo within a few days. After four months the first recorded version of "Mammy Blue" was made - with Italian lyrics - by Ivana Spagna marking that singer's recording debut. In May 1971 Alain Milhaud, a French record producer based in Spain, acquired the song for Los Pop Tops, a group he managed: Milhaud produced Los Pop Tops recording of "Mammy Blue" in a session in London after the group's frontman Phil Trim wrote English lyrics for the song. The French Barclay label expediently had the song covered by both Joel Dayde and Nicoletta. The Dayde version - featuring Phil Trim's English lyric - was recorded at Olympic Sound Studio in London and the Decca Studio in Paris: Wally Stott was the arranger. Nicoletta's version featured the original French lyrics written by Hubert Giraud who himself produced Nicoletta's recording.

Los Pop Tops version and Joel Dayde both reached #1 on the French charts with "Mammy Blue" while the Nicoletta version rose as high as #4 affording the singer her career record. Both the Los Pop Tops and Dayde versions became concurrent major hits in several other territories including Belgium where Los Pop Tops and Dayde's versions reached #1 on respectively the Dutch and French chart with Los Pop Tops reaching #3 on the latter, the Netherlands where Los Pop Tops reached #3 and Dayde #13, Norway where Los Pop Tops reached #1 and Dayde #3 and Sweden where Los Pop Tops reached #1 and Dayde #6. In Spain Dayde's English version of "Mammy Blue" reached #2 while Los Pop Tops reached #1 with a specially recorded version of the song in Spanish.

In Germany Los Pop Tops spent ten weeks at #1 while the Dayde version only charted peripherally at #40 while a German rendering recorded by Ricky Shayne afforded Shayne his best ever German chart showing with a #7 peak. Los Pop Tops also rendered "Mammy Blue" in Italian with a resultant #1 in Italy where a local cover by Johnny Dorelli also charted at #28: another Italian cover by Dalida failed to chart as did the English version by Ricky Shayne in its Italian release. Ricky Shayne's English version did appear in the French Top Ten (peak: #8) with the Dayde, Nicoletta and Los Pop Tops versions and also charted in Brazil (#1) and Japan, selling 500,000 copies in the latter territory where the Los Pop Tops version had also been a hit at #2.

Los Pop Tops English version also reached #1 in Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland; in Denmark the song also reached the Top Ten via a cover by Roger Whittaker which also reached #4 in Finland where the version by Los Pop Tops and a Finnish rendering by Kirka Babitzin also reached the Top Ten.

The Joel Dayde version of "Mammy Blue" reached #2 in Australia, the only evident territory where Dayde did not have to vie with Los Pop Tops although the cover by Roger Whittaker and another by James Darren did well enough regionally to register on Australia's national chart with respective peaks of #53 and #47. In South Africa "Mammy Blue" was recorded by a session group billed as Charisma: produced by Graeme Beggs, this version spent twelve weeks at #1 making it the second longest running South African #1 hit. Otherwise "Mammy Blue" did not have a strong national chart showing in the English speaking world: in the UK Los Pop Tops vied with a cover by Roger Whittaker with neither version reaching the Top 30 respective chart peaks being #35 and #31; in the US Los Pop Tops was the sole charting version with a #57 peak on the Hot 100 in Billboard whose Easy Listening chart afforded the track a #28 peak; in Canada Los Pop Tops vied with a cover by session group Oak Island Treasury Department - these versions respectively peaking at #42 and #68 - while a cover by Roger Whittaker of the original French version was a hit on Canada's French charts reaching #2. "Mammy Blue" returned to the Hot 100 in 1973 via a remake by the Stories which peaked at #50: this version charted in Canada at #47.

The English version of "Mammy Blue" has also been recorded by Horace Andy, Julio Iglesias, Vicky Leandros and Demis Roussos. Celine Dion and Lara Fabian have both made recordings of the original French version, which was remade in 2004 by Neje to reach #75 on the French charts. The Spanish version has also been recorded by José Mercé while Roberto Blanco and Bata Ilic have both made recordings of the German version. The Finnish version of "Mammy Blue" has also been recorded by Fredi.

"Mammy Blue" has also been recorded in Croatian by Miro Ungar, in Czech ("Ó, Mami, Dík") by Karel Gott, in Hungarian by Kati Kovács, in Icelandic by Mjöll Holm, in Portuguese by Laércio de Freitas, in Romanian ("O, Mamă, Tu") by Anda and in Swedish by Kjerstin Dellert.

References

• Billlboard
• http://www.discogs.com