"Amoureuse" | ||||
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Single by Véronique Sanson | ||||
from the album Amoureuse | ||||
B-side | Mariavah | |||
Released | March 1972 | |||
Format | 7" | |||
Genre | French song | |||
Length | 3:39 | |||
Label | Elektra / Warner Music Group | |||
Writer(s) | Véronique Sanson | |||
Producer(s) | Michel Berger | |||
Véronique Sanson singles chronology | ||||
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"Amoureuse" | ||||
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Single by Kiki Dee | ||||
from the album Loving and Free | ||||
B-side | Rest My Head | |||
Released | August 31, 1973 | |||
Format | 7" | |||
Genre | Easy listening | |||
Length | 4:09 (album version) | |||
Label | The Rocket Record Company | |||
Writer(s) | Véronique Sanson and Gary Osborne | |||
Kiki Dee singles chronology | ||||
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"Emotion" | ||||
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Single by Helen Reddy | ||||
from the album Free and Easy | ||||
B-side | "I've Been Wanting You So Long" | |||
Released | January 1975 | |||
Format | 7" | |||
Genre | Easy listening | |||
Length | 2:54 | |||
Label | Capitol | |||
Writer(s) | Véronique Sanson, Patti Dahlstrom | |||
Producer(s) | Joe Wissert | |||
Helen Reddy singles chronology | ||||
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"Amoureuse" is a French language composition by Véronique Sanson introduced on her 1972 album of the same name. Rendered in English the song became a hit single for Kiki Dee and - as "Emotion" - for Helen Reddy.
The original song title "Amoureuse" - which does not feature in its lyrics - is the French equivalent of the English adjective amorous and is also a feminine noun meaning lover. Sanson's lyric describes the contradictory feelings of passion and fear of a woman involved in a new love affair. Sanson was inspired to write the song while driving "up the Champs-Elysées in my little Autobianchi A112" at six AM: "It was a feeling of freedom... I was constantly monitored... And I wrote this song because I knew I was going to get yelled at by my parents [upon arriving home]."
"Amoureuse" had its first major impact out of France via a cover version for the Quebec market by France Castel () which reached #1 on the French-language chart for Canada in December 1972: the track was featured on Castel's 1973 album release Je le vois dans ma soupe.
The earliest English rendering of the song by lyricist Gary Osborne is faithful to the original French lyrics in the chorus, but quite different in the verses, introducing the idea of a first intimate relationship, which was not in Sanson's lyrics. The first evident recording of this version was by Sanson herself with UK and US single releases in respectively September 1972 and November 1972. The Sanson/Osborne version of "Amoureuse" was then recorded in April 1973 by Kiki Dee who credits Tony King, vice president of Rocket Records, with suggesting that she record "Amoureuse" for her album Loving and Free produced by Elton John: issued as a single August 31, 1973, Dee's "Amoureuse" made a belated chart entry in November 1973 to rise to a UK chart peak of #13 that December, besting an attempted cover version by Polly Brown issued September 21, 1973.
Almost a year after her UK success with "Amoureuse", the track would afford Dee a chart hit in Australia with a #12 peak in the autumn of 1974.
In the US, "Amoureuse" served as the B-side for the February 1975 Kiki Dee Band release "Step by Step", the non-charting follow-up single to "I've Got the Music in Me".