Hélène (song)

"Hélène"
Single by Roch Voisine
from the album Hélène
B-side "Ton Blues"
Released November 1989
Format CD single, CD maxi,
12" maxi
Recorded 1989
Genre Pop
Length 3:42
Label Ariola
Writer(s) Stéphane Lessard
Roch Voisine
Producer(s) Georges Mary
Certification Platinum France, 1990
Roch Voisine singles chronology
"Hélène"
(1989)		 "Pourtant"
(1990)

"Hélène" is a 1989 pop song recorded by the Canadian singer Roch Voisine. It was the first single from his first studio album Hélène, and was released in November 1989. This song allowed the singer to launch his career and achieved great success in France.

Song information

The song was recorded at the Intercession studio. The guitars are played by Carl Katz, and the keyboards by Luc Gilbert.

The cover for the CD maxi used the same photograph as that of the album Hélène : Roch Voisine's face with a black background. The song is mainly in French-language, but contains a line in English as follows: "Hélène things you do / Make me crazy about you".

The music video features the singer and an air hostess who are in love, but who are forced to separate because of professional reasons. She may be French because when, in the video, she writes her name on a mirror with her lipstick, she does end it with an 'e' ('Helene'), as on the single cover. The model who plays the role of Hélène is Ariane Cordeau.[1]

The song is also available on the Roch collection (2007), also known as Best of.

Voisine also recorded the song wholly in English as "Helen" and included this version on the English portion of his bilingual album Double in 1990 (which was in turn released separately as a full-length English album titled Roch Voisine the same year).

"Hélène" was also recorded in an acoustic version on his 2003 album Je te serai fidèle, which appeared as the second track on CD maxi for "Tant pis", released in February 2004. In 2013, he recorded a duet wersion with Coeur de Pirate, which features on his album Duophonique.

Chart performances

The French version topped the chart for nine weeks in France, where it featured for 27 weeks from November 11, 1989 to May 5, 1990 (it stayed for 20 weeks in the top 10)[2] and was certified Platinum disc by the French certifier, the SNEP, for about 1 million copies sold.[3] The French song also peaked at #3 in Norway.[4]

According to Infodisc.fr website, it is the 139th best-selling single of all time in France.[5]

Roch Voisine was the first Canadian to reach number 1 on French SNEP Singles Chart, followed by Bryan Adams, Céline Dion and Garou a few years later.[6][7]

The English version performed moderately well on RPM magazine's all-Anglophone singles charts, peaking at #57 on the Top 100 and #9 on the Adult Contemporary chart in very early 1990.

The song achieved moderate success in the Netherlands, peaking at number 53 two years after its original release.

Track listings

CD maxi
  1. "Hélène" (new English version) — 3:42
  2. "Hélène" (French version) — 3:42
  3. "Hélène" (instrumental) — 3:42
7" single
  1. "Hélène" — 3:42
  2. "Ton Blues" — 3:35
CD single
  1. "Hélène" — 3:42
  2. "Ton Blues" — 3:35

Charts and sales

Peak positions

Chart (1989/90) Peak
position
Canadian RPM Top 100 Chart
  • English version
 57
Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary Chart
  • English version
 9
French SNEP Singles Chart[2] 1
Norwegian Singles Chart[4] 3
Chart (1991) Peak
position
Dutch Mega Top 100[8] 53
Chart (2013)1 Peak
position
Belgian (Wallonia) Ultratip Chart 16
French SNEP Singles Chart 72

1 Duet with Cœur de Pirate

Certifications

Country Certification Date Sales certified Physical sales
France[3] 1990 Platinum 800,000 877,000

Chart successions

Preceded by
"Swing the Mood" by Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers		 French SNEP number one single (first run)
December 9, 1989 – January 20, 1990 (7 weeks) 		Succeeded by
"Les Valses de Vienne" by François Feldman
Preceded by
"Les Valses de Vienne" by François Feldman		 French SNEP number one single (second run)
February 24, 1990 – March 3, 1990 (2 weeks)

References

  1. ↑ Nos années Top, clips et 45 tours : 1984-1991, Marc Lemonier, 2008, p. 91 (ISBN 225807648X)
  2. 1 2 "Hélène", French Singles Chart Lescharts.com (Retrieved February 8, 2008)
  3. 1 2 French certifications, database Infodisc.fr (Retrieved January 8, 2008)
  4. 1 2 "Hélène", Norwegian Singles Chart Lescharts.com (Retrieved February 8, 2008)
  5. ↑ Best-selling single of all time in France Infodisc.fr (Retrieved February 9, 2008)
  6. ↑ Elia Habib, Muz hit. tubes, 2002, p. 172 (ISBN 2-9518832-0-X)
  7. ↑ Alex P. King, Hit-parade, 20 ans de tubes, 2005, Pascal Ed., p. 9 (ISBN 978-2350190099) Vingt ans de tubes (Retrieved April 23, 2008)
  8. ↑ "Hélène", Dutch Mega Top 100 Dutchcharts.nl (Retrieved April 11, 2010)
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