Who has never sung “He was a little man, pirouette, peanut …”? Thousands of children started it, telling the story of this funny cardboard house in which the postman climbed, cutting his nose. But it took a long time before Gabrielle Grandière, a resident of Sarthe, revealed that she was the author. It was she from whom we learned of the death on Tuesday, at the age of 99, news told notably on France Blue.
It was during an interview on one of the books that this woman also wrote that this former teacher said, years later, that she was the author of the lyrics for this song. She composed it in 1953 while teaching in Alençon, in Normandy. Interviewed in 2012 by “Maine Libre”, she explained that she found the rhymes “cucul” at the time. So she decided to write one herself and the lyrics came naturally. But why these words “pirouette, peanut” at the beginning of each verse? “I don’t know, I wrote anything, which came to my mind.”
Dorothy adds an airplane
His song then spread quickly and became very popular. In 1982, the host of children’s television programs, Dorothée, recorded a version, but by adding two verses, one of which spoke of a jet plane, which we hardly encountered in 1953. Dorothée changes also the end, replacing “I will start it again” (which has made the unhappy of some weary audiences), by “Gentlemen, Ladies, applaud”. Sylvie Vartan had in turn taken over this version in 1997.
In the public domain
Gabrielle Grandière was outraged not only by these changes, but also by the fact that she was not credited on these two discs. Simply because the song was considered to be in the public domain. Suddenly, in 2002, she decides to deposit her work at Sacem, (Society of songwriters and music publishers), which refuses, considering that the song is indeed part of the public domain. “So, since then, my name is Public domain”, she railed at the time. For “Pirouette, cacahuète”, so much sung, so much reworked, it will therefore have received no rights. Not a peanut.
Michel Pralong
Created: 27.02.2020, 16h02
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