B-side "Brenda Lee" Format 7" single Genre Rock and roll | Released August 1964 Recorded January 1964 Length 2:43 | |
"You Never Can Tell", also known as "C'est La Vie" or "Teenage Wedding", is a song written by Chuck Berry. It was composed in the early 1960s while Berry was in federal prison for violating the Mann Act. Released in 1964 on the album St. Louis to Liverpool and the follow-up single to Berry's final Top Ten hit of the 1960s: "No Particular Place to Go", "You Never Can Tell" reached #14 becoming Berry's final Top 40 hit until "My Ding-a-Ling", a #1 in Oct. 1972. A 1978 Top Ten C&W hit for Emmylou Harris, the song has also been recorded or performed by Chely Wright, John Prine, New Riders of the Purple Sage, the Jerry Garcia Band, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Seger.
Contents
Description
The song tells of the wedding of two teenagers and their lifestyle afterward. Living in a modest apartment, the young man finds work and they begin to enjoy relative prosperity. Eventually they purchase a "souped-up jitney" (an automobile modified for high performance) and travel to New Orleans, where their wedding had taken place, to celebrate their anniversary. Each verse ends with the refrain, "'C'est la vie,' say the old folks, 'it goes to show you never can tell.'" The melody was influenced by Mitchell Torok's 1953 hit "Caribbean".
Pulp Fiction
The song briefly became popular again after the 1994 release of the film Pulp Fiction, directed and co-written by Quentin Tarantino. The music was played for a "Twist contest" in which Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) competed (and were the only contestants shown in the film). The music added an evocative element of sound to the narrative and Tarantino said that the song's lyrics of "Pierre" and "Mademoiselle" gave the scene a "uniquely '50s French New Wave dance sequence feel".
Impact
Nick Lowe has indicated this song was a source of inspiration for his song "I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock 'n' Roll)", which has been recorded by Dave Edmunds, Status Quo and Lowe himself.
Emmylou Harris version
Emmylou Harris' recording of "You Never Can Tell" - entitled "(You Never Can Tell) C'est La Vie" - was the lead single from her 1977 Warner Bros. Records album Luxury Liner.
Harris had sung Chuck Berry songs as a member of a DC-based folk trio early in her career. Her decision to record "...C'est La Vie" was the result of her listening extensively to rock-&-roll oldies while on the road. The track, which features a prominent Cajun fiddle contribution by Ricky Scaggs, was recorded in an August 10, 1976 session recorded in the Enactron Truck, the mobile studio owned and operated by Harris' producer Brian Ahern. The same session yielded "Hello Stranger" which would serve as the B-side of the single release.
Released February 2, 1977, "...C'est La Vie" rose as high as #6 on C&W chart in Billboard that April. The track also rose to #4 and #5, respectively in the Netherlands and also the Flemish Region of Belgium. It also charted in Germany at #41.
In a 2013 interview Harris said: "'C’est la Vie' was a wonderful song to do, and I might [perform] it for nostalgic reasons, but it just lost its appeal for me after a while. I didn’t feel that I was bringing anything to it, I guess."