Matt Flinders - Butterfly (1971)

Danyel Gérard - Butterfly (1971)

(Danyel Gérard - Ralph Bernet - Howard Barnes)
 France
Original version with these lyrics
#4 France [Lesueur*] #11 UK #78 USA #3 Sydney #4 Melbourne #5 Brisbane #3 Adelaide #17 Perth #7 NZ

Single on CBS (France).

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*Gérard’s Butterfly appears in Daniel Lesueur’s French chart book at #8 for November 1971 and #4 for December. Other sources fail to record any chart placing for France, but as Lesueur himself puts it, le hit-parade n’est pas une science précise.
   Daniel Lesueur, Hit Parades 1950-1998 (1999), via Philippe.

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This is Hélas trois fois hélas (1968: see below) with new lyrics and a somewhat altered melody in the chorus

Co-charted with the Australian cover version by Matt Flinders.

The Danyel Gérard discography at Wikipedia lists chart placings for Butterfly in several countries: this was a big hit worldwide

Singer-songwriter Danyel Gérard (Gérard Danyel Kherlakian b. 1941) was born in Paris but lived in Rio de Janeiro as a youngster until returning to France in 1953. His initial rock’n’roll and recording career began in the late-50s but was interrupted by service in the French army.

References, further reading: 1. Danyel Gérard biography at Wikipedia. 2. Usenet post by Raoul Verolleman (1998). 3. Danyel Gérard at French site Bide-et-musique.

Thanks to René Ferri for additional details.

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Other versions: This is a much-recorded song. See, for example, the 68 “follow-up songs” listed at Cover.info.

Danyel Gérard - Hélas trois fois hélas (1968)

( Danyel Gérard - Vline Buggy )
 France
Original melody

Single on Disc AZ, lyrics by Vline Buggy (not the lyricist for Butterfly). The title means alas, three times alas.

The Originals website, for example, calls this as the original version, but it isn’t exactly Butterfly. As Second Hand Songs refines it: The melody of the verses [was] later recycled for… Butterfly.