Les Fleur is a lovely song originally performed by 70s soul artist Minnie Riperton. It was written by Richard Rudolph and Charles Stepney, her husband and mentor respectively, and appears on the 1971 album Come to My Garden. I don't know why it is called Les Fleur and not Le Fleur or Les Fleurs, as would be gramatically correct.

I know of two recent covers of the song, both from the last year or two. One is by drum & bass artists 4Hero – it is a complete reworking (I thought it was a sample to begin with), and is sung by Carina Andersson. It was a single, and can also be heard on their album Creating Patterns. The other cover is by another British electronic artist, Chungking, on the Tummy Touch label, and appears on their EP It's Now Safe To Turn Off Your Computer.

Some info about Minnie Riperton: Born in 1947, the youngest of eight children, she took up dancing and singing from an early age. In 1967 she became part of rock / jazz group Rotary Connection, where she met her husband, but achieved greater success some years later as a solo artist. One of her best known songs is Lovin’ You - but Les Fleur is much nicer in my opinion. Riperton, a victim of breast cancer, died at the young age of 31, after having spent a great deal of time campaigning for more awareness of the disease.

Les Fleur is an example of Riperton's very nice voice, and I also like the guitar intro a lot, so it really needs to be heard. The song arguably borders on cheesiness, but I think it gets away with just being genuinely nice. These are the lyrics:


© Embassy Music Corporation. (Reproduced in compliance with fair use policy).

Will somebody wear me to the fair?
Will a lady pin me in her hair?
Will a child find me by a stream?
Kiss my petals and weave me through a dream.

For all of these simple things and much more a flower was born
It blooms to spread love and joy faith and hope to people forlorn

Inside every man lives the seed of a flower
If he looks within he finds beauty and power

Ring all the bells sing and tell the people that be
everywhere that the flower has come
Light up the sky with your prayers of gladness and rejoice for the darkness is gone
Throw off your fears let your heart beat freely at the sign that a new time is born

You can hear a clip of the song at http://www.minnieriperton.com/sub/1sub/laudio/lyrics/lesfleurmp3.html

That site, http://www.minnieriperton.com is a good one for reading about the artist.



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