The Many Washerwomen of Portugal

One of the most engaging singles of the 1950s was called "The Portuguese Washerwomen," or "Les Lavandières du Portugal" as it was known to its authors, the French songwriters André Popp and Roger Lucchesi. It became a hit in the US as an instrumental by pianist Joe "Fingers" Carr in 1956, about a year or so after the song achieved popularity in Europe.

In France, the best selling record was probably by vocalist Jacqueline François, backed by the band of Michel Legrand. But there were many other versions, including an instrumental by Popp himself. There also were cover records in several other languages. For the US market, new lyrics by Charles Tobias turned it into a song called "Kiki," which came out well before Carr's single became a hit. This post examines all those different permutations.

We start with the instrumental by André Popp, issued by Philips. Popp had a long career, but in his youth, he had a penchant for wacky compositions - one such effort was issued in the US as by "Elsa Popping and Her Pixieland Band." Later Popp mellowed into the composer of such easy listening staples as "Love Is Blue." He was a well-respected and recognized writer and musician.

Jacqueline François had become a star in France following the success of "Mademoiselle de Paris" in 1948. She was quite a good singer - I have many of her records - and "Les Lavandières du Portugal" was deservedly popular. As the title suggests, the song has to do with Portuguese washerwomen, who beat their linens at the river while ogling young men and drinking manzanilla. (An English translation is in the download.)

Giving us the ol' side-eye are Joe "Fingers" Carr, Jacqueline François and André Popp

For the US market, the thought apparently was that such a tale would be of minimal interest, so the well-known lyricist Charles Tobias came up with the charming story of a Parisian girl named Kiki. We have already encountered a terrific version of "Kiki" by Betty Clooney, which can be found on the main blog. This set includes a single by Hugo Winterhalter's orchestra with chorus. The song works much better in Clooney's deft solo reading, but this one is entertaining, too, if a little overblown for the subject. Unfortunately for Betty and Hugo (and Charles Tobias), the "Kiki" version went nowhere.

Billboard, September 3, 1955

For the next attempt to crack the US market, Capitol went back to the original title, "The Portuguese Washerwomen," but jettisoned the words in favor of an instrumental by old-timey pianist Joe "Fingers" Carr, the stage name for arranger-producer Lou Busch. I am generally averse to bowler-hat and sleeve-garter piano plunkers, but this isn't so bad.

I mentioned that the tune was popular in other countries - Secondhand Songs lists versions in Czech, Danish, Finnish, German, Polish, Spanish and Swedish. I've included one of the Danish recordings - "Vaskepigerne I Portugal" by a group called Lørdaspigerne (which is "The Saturday Girls" in English).

I haven't found a record about the washerwomen in the Portuguese language. I did find a blog post from Portugal that complained that the music used a Spanish, not Portuguese rhythm, and that the washerwomen were even drinking Spanish wine (manzanilla). The author also grumbled about sports commentators pronouncing Portuguese names with a Spanish accent, but that's not germane to our discussion.

These recordings come from Internet Archive and my own collection. The sound is excellent.