SIMON Cowell, Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden all have given the thumbs up to Susan Boyle‘s rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream,” now clocking more than 50 million hits on YouTube.
But — moment of truth here — what does the man who wrote the song think?
“I think of Edith Piaf,” says lyricist Alain Boublil, who, with composer Claude-Michel Schonberg, wrote the song for the long-running hit “Les Miserables.”
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“Piaf was a small woman who looked like nothing. And then she opened her mouth, and this beautiful sound came out.”
Though Boyle’s a bit larger than Edith Piaf — no one was thinking “sparrow” when they first saw her on “Britain’s Got Talent” last week — it’s certainly true that her singing voice doesn’t match the physical appearance.
“You expect nothing,” says Boublil, “and then she opens her mouth and you get three or four of the most exciting moments I have ever seen on television. Act I: She arrives and everyone is laughing at her. Act II: She bowls them over. Act III: Everyone is out of their seats.
“You cannot plan any of that. My wife was crying when she saw it. Even the most cynical people I know have been moved.”
“I Dreamed a Dream” was one of the first songs Boublil wrote for “Les Miz” in 1979.
“I remember I was in a car driving in the north of France and was working on this song about Fantine. Her descent into hell — she loses everything: her money, her daughter — takes up several chapters. I had to encapsulate 50 pages of the novel into a three-minute song. So I decided rather than to list all the happiness, I would go inside her head — ‘I Dreamt of a Different Life’ was the original title. And that is how the lyric was born.”
The song — which was changed to “I Dreamed a Dream” with the help of British lyricist Herbert Kretzmer — has been recorded by Patti LuPone, Elaine Paige, Aretha Franklin and Neil Diamond, to name a few.
Franklin and Diamond’s versions are particular favorites of Boublil’s, with Boyle coming up right behind them, especially since she’s now in a position to make the song a chart-topper.
She will likely record it on an album to be produced by Cowell’s record company. He’s predicting that album will shoot to No. 1 in America.
Since Boyle appeared on “Britain’s Got Talent” last week, “I Dreamed a Dream” — LuPone’s version — has charted at No. 27 on iTunes.
“I didn’t even know the single still existed,” says Boublil. “The funny thing is that on iTunes, before you come to ‘I Dreamed a Dream,’ all the songs are hip-hop and dance records.
” ‘Les Miserables’ is something quite special. Every time we think we are done with it, we are not.”
Boublil and Schonberg, who also wrote “Miss Saigon,” are at work on a new musical, and Boublil’s writing a three-character play.
Their last Broadway outing — “The Pirate Queen” — was a $15 million flop.
“We may have misconceived the show,” Boublil concedes, but he believes the score is worth a listen, adding: “It is not inferior. If it were, I would say that very calmly. But I do believe it contains some very fine musical moments.”
Why not get Susan Boyle to record a song from it on her upcoming album?
“Well, the main song is a duet [“If I Said I Love You”]. Who could do it with her?”
How about Paul Potts, the mobile-phone-salesman-turned opera singer who was last year’s Susan Boyle?
“That’s an idea,” says Boublil. “If I were a friend of Simon Cowell, I’d suggest that.”
SPEAKING of famous songs, I began a column recently with: “Spring,” as Oscar Hammerstein II wrote, “is here.”
Naturally, I had my head handed to me by those sniping little carrion-feeders over at All That Chat. They gleefully pointed out that it was Lorenz Hart who wrote “Spring Is Here.”
Oh, you smug little fools! You fell right into my trap!
On page 146 of “The Complete Lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II,” you’ll find a song, written in 1929 for “Sweet Adeline,” that is called . . . “Spring Is Here.”
And you call yourselves show queens.