Beau Dommage – La Complainte du Phoque en Alaska

"La Complainte du Phoque en Alaska" is the fourth track on Beau Dommage's eponymous debut album, released in December 1974. In 1975, it was released as a single with "Harmonie du soir à Châteauguay" and became a monster hit. The song is included in Roger Chamberland and André Gaulin's La Chanson Québécoise anthology and in Bob Mersereau's The Top 100 Canadian Singles book, where it placed seventh among French-Canadian singles and ninety-seventh overall.

I remember being quite humbled when, at the Human Rights Now! concert at Olympic Stadium in Montreal in September 1988, the Americans sitting behind us leaned over and asked why we were the only Canadians in the entire stadium who didn't immediately sing along with Michel Rivard.

Click below for:

• the original album version
• a Félix Leclerc cover version
• a version en spectacle, to give you a sense of what it is like when everyone sings along

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Personnel

• Pierre Bertrand – vocals, bass, acoustic guitar, clavinet
• Marie-Michèle Desrosiers – vocals, piano, synthesizer
• Réal Desrosiers – drums, perucssion
• Robert Léger – piano, synthesizer, flute, bass
• Michel Rivard – vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bottle-neck guitar

• Beau Dommage – Harmonie du soir à Châteauguay (song)
• Beau Dommage – Beau Dommage (album)