I add a comment.
I am quite sure that most of the French people do not hear "Padam" when Piaf sings.
For the simple reason that Padam has no meaning and that Panam has a meaning (Panam is Paris). And more: the pronunciation Panam is close to Padam. So the French ear will chose (by ease) to hear Panam (understandable) instead of Padam (without meaning).The thing would have been totally different with Patam or Param, which are far from Panam for the pronunciation.
So I guess that most of the French people, if they happen to know that Padam is the real word sung by Piaf, would not understand why such a word here. Odd, odd, odd. They would not care. They do not care. And they are right. The aim of a song is not to propose a puzzle and a headache. We need simple things there we can immediately get.
So I venture to say that the guy who wrote the song found clever to write Padam, but most of the French people do not understand the subtlety (if any) and sing Panam, panam, panam. Such a meaningless (at first sight) title, Padam, did not prevent the song to be a huge success!
I add a comment. I am quite sure that most of the French people do not hear "Padam" when Piaf sings. For the simple reason that Padam has no meaning and that Panam has a meaning (Panam is Paris). And more: the pronunciation Panam is close to Padam. So the French ear will chose (by ease) to hear Panam (understandable) instead of Padam (without meaning).The thing would have been totally different with Patam or Param, which are far from Panam for the pronunciation. So I guess that most of the French people, if they happen to know that Padam is the real word sung by Piaf, would not understand why such a word here. Odd, odd, odd. They would not care. They do not care. And they are right. The aim of a song is not to propose a puzzle and a headache. We need simple things there we can immediately get. So I venture to say that the guy who wrote the song found clever to write Padam, but most of the French people do not understand the subtlety (if any) and sing Panam, panam, panam. Such a meaningless (at first sight) title, Padam, did not prevent the song to be a huge success!
Jean-Claude Picot - jecipic@hotmail.com