Auprès de ma blonde

"Auprès de ma blonde" (French for "Next to My Girlfriend") or "Le Prisonnier de Hollande" ("The Prisoner of Holland") is a popular chanson dating to the 17th century. The song tells the story of a lady who laments to the birds in her father's garden that her husband is a prisoner in Holland. It appeared during or soon after the Franco-Dutch War (1672–78), during the reign of Louis XIV, when French sailors and soldiers were commonly imprisoned in the Netherlands.

The song's quick pace and lively melody made it well-suited to military marches, and it is still commonly played at parades. For the same reasons, it gained widespread popularity as a drinking song and nursery rhyme.

Appearances

• Film: The song is heard during the parade scenes at the end of The Day of the Jackal. An English version of the song, titled "I love only one girl" ("the one I've got my arms around"), was sung by Elvis Presley in the 1967 film Double Trouble. (Lyrics for the Elvis version were by American songwriters Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett.) In the 1952 musical comedy film April in Paris, Doris Day and Claude Dauphin sing (and dance to) this song in the kitchen of a French ocean liner. The melody is hummed by actors Ian Holm and Christopher Lambert in Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. It is heard in the exit music of the 1938 film, "Marie Antoinette," starring Norma Shearer. The song is also sung by Christine Daaé in the 1990 miniseries The Phantom of the Opera. Sung by an unseen group in the opening scenes of THAT HAMILTON WOMAN (1941), staring Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier.
• Television: The song appeared in two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Family" and '"Final Mission". It also appeared in the British TV movie Sharpe's Revenge being sung by General Calvet's men to Richard Sharpe and Lucille. The song appears as background music in a Marseille cafe in Alfred Hitchcock Presents, episode No. 3.22 of 2 March 1958 "The Return of the Hero". It's also sung by Sarah Moffatt in two episodes of Upstairs, Downstairs. Its refrain also serves as a central theme in one episode of "Have Gun Will Travel" Season 6, Episode 27 (title: The Savages). It is also found in Starsky & Hutch season 4 episode 8, "Dandruff".
• Books: Auprès de ma blonde is the title of a 1972 detective novel by Nicolas Freeling featuring Commissaris Van der Valk, and his wife Arlette of Amsterdam.
• In Dorothy L. Sayers' novel Busman's Honeymoon, the newly married Lord Peter Wimsey sings the song to express his happiness.
• In Roger Zelazny's book Nine Princes in Amber, Corwin claims to have been the one who composed the tune to "Auprès de ma blonde".

• In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Mitty hums the tune in a war-time scenario.
• In the 1958 film Lafayette Escadrille, the concierge of a small hotel sings the song to express his joy at the reunion of the film‘s young lovers.
• A French singer sings this song in the court of Prinny, in the movie "The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel." during a ball scene. The time is supposed to be that of The Terror, and the enthusiasm with which this song is greeted shows that the British aristocracy never heard it before. That is a time anachronism because this chanson existed in the 17th century.
• In Missing Person by Patrick Modiano, the tune is mentioned briefly, towards the end of the novel, in Chapter 43.
• In the architectural manifesto Nine Points on Monumentality (1943) by Sigfried Giedion, Fernand Léger and Josep Lluís Sert, selected verses are quoted as indicative of popular perceptions on monumentality.
• Pepé Le Pew is singing a refrain in the 1962 Chuck Jones short 'Louvre Come Back to Me!'.
• In Frederic Manning's book Her Privates We, when asked by a French lady if he sang, Bourne replied with a rendition.
• The song is the first track of "Songs of the World" by the Norman Luboff Choir. It was meant to represent France, on a two album set that included songs from all around the world.

Music