Item 1131 - Longtemps

French lyricist Roger Desbois was born in Paris. While not much is known about his life, it seems he was extremely prolific, based on the 438 catalog entries under his name in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, including recordings and sheet music. He published pieces between 1948 and 1998. He sometimes co-wrote lyrics with other writers such as Guy Bertret and Jean Eigel, the pseudonym for Julien Douville. He often wrote under pseudonyms himself, for example: Santos Guerrero, André Clinchant and Claude Giron. Many of his lyrics were French translations of songs in English, such as “Le ciel me sourit,” a French version of Danny Kaye’s “Life Could Not Be Better” from the film “The Court Jester,” or “Baby c’est vous,” from “Baby, It’s You.” Songs with his lyrics were sung by many stars like Josephine Baker (“Quand je pense à ça”) and Dalida (“Helena”). Encyclopédisque has 88 entries listed under his name.