Comme d'Habitude

In February 1967, the composer Jacques Revaux was on holiday at a hotel in Megève when he realised he was late delivering four songs to the producer Norbert Saada, so he wrote all four in a single morning. One of them, with English words and the title "For Me", was turned down by Michel Sardou, Mireille Mathieu, Hugues Aufray and Claude François himself before ending up as a B-side for Hervé Vilard. Revaux was not satisfied, and that August he visited François at his home at Dannemois to propose reworking it for him. François agreed on one condition: the song had to be about a couple worn down by their relationship, a reference to his recent break-up with the singer France Gall. With lyrics by François and Gilles Thibaut, it became "Comme d'habitude" a song about routine settling into a relationship until it breaks apart. Then Paul Anka heard it on French radio. He bought the publishing and adaptation rights, while the French writers kept their share of the composition royalties, and wrote completely new English words for Frank Sinatra. In 1969 it became "My Way", no longer about a fading marriage but about a life looked back on without regret. David Bowie said he had tried writing English lyrics for the same tune a year earlier, and that his rejected attempt grew into "Life on Mars". Few melodies have carried such different stories, and it all began with a hurried morning's work and a broken heart.