This little spotlight sees us looking at a seemingly happier time of our Diva's life. I have it on good authority, as told to me by Robbie Solete that in 1984
@chanex,
@londonrain and
@Robsolete were adamant to our Dalida's people that she cover a Pop R&B tinged ballad from Motown to demonstrate the extent of her range!* The song selected was the massive 19 week US Chart Topper, and Motown's best selling record in the UK to date - a little Stevie Wonder classic called
I Just Called To Say I Love You.
Dalida's version called
Pour Te Dire Je T'Aime was actually her last charting single in France while she was alive, reaching #25. Funnily enough, to make it phonetically beautiful in French - the lyric is slightly altered and the message is more universal. Telling someone you love them is still very much in effect, yet the calling someone over the phone aspect is mostly removed for a more devoted and romantic spin - such as with a sappier 'shouting it from the rooftop' approach. As suspected, since this take is quite cheesy (not that the original wasn't to begin with) - it is someone's favourite Dalida song, and that someone is the person responsible for making me have a nostalgic appreciation for Michael Bolton (Ddddd), my mother! As you can imagine, this was enough reason for me not to include it in the rate, though it could easily have been for the last charting single before death approach and the fact Dalida delivers the track absolutely beautifully, in her best 'Linda Evans as Crystal Carrington' drag below...
But wait, there's more!! Not to be outdone, and since Dalida was doing lots of these adaptations in the mid 80s anyway, the court case testimonies of
@WowWowWowWow and
@Sprockrooster tell us that they begged Dalida's to remake another huge song (this time a Christmas classic)
Last Christmas by Wham!*
Our lady's take on the instrumental called
Reviens-Moi goes a step further from the Wham! version, advising her lover she is willing to forgive and wants him back (for Christmas is implied, though not necessarily the main time of the year she wants this, maybe for always). As with the other track featured - Dalida was a staple performer of variety shows in the 80s (gotta know your demographic!!) so many of her tracks have Live or Live-Lipsynced performances, rather than music videos on YouTube.
*The events depicted here are as they occurred in Berserk World where the whole 694 songs of Dalida's Discography is rated, with 200 participants on PopJustice!
