"Tu ne m'as pas laissé le temps" is a 1999 song recorded by French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 artist David Hallyday

David Hallyday

David Hallyday is a French singer/songwriter and amateur sports car racer. He was born in Boulogne-Billancourt and is the son of the French singers Sylvie Vartan and Johnny Hallyday....

. It was the lead single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 from his album Un Paradis / Un Enfer, released about two weeks after the single, in June 1999. Very moving, it was a smash hit in France (a number-one single) and Belgium (Wallonia) and remains to date David Hallyday's most successful single.

Song information

The music was composed by the singer himself, while the lyrics were written by Lionel Florence, a famous composer who had previously worked with many artists such as Alain Chamfort

Alain Chamfort

Alain Chamfort, born Alain Le Govic, is a French singer of Breton origin, born on 2 March 1949 in Paris.He was a promising pianist in his youth, and the piano became his instrument of choice...

, Faudel

Faudel

Faudel , born Faudel Belloua on June 6, 1978 in Mantes-la-Jolie, is a French singer of Algerian descent.-Early years:...

, Florent Pagny

Florent Pagny

Florent Pagny is a French musician. He has also acted in many French films. He records work in French, Italian, Spanish and English, and his greatest hits include "N'importe quoi", "Savoir aimer", "Ma Liberté de penser" and "Caruso" .As of 2008, he has sold 4,268,980 copies of singles,...

, Jane Birkin

Jane Birkin

Jane Mallory Birkin, OBE is an English-born actress and singer who lives in France. In recent years she has written her own album, directed a film and become an outspoken proponent of democracy in Burma.- Early life :...

, Pascal Obispo

Pascal Obispo

Pascal Michel Obispo is a French singer/songwriter.Pascal Obispo started singing in 1980. He got his first record deal in 1990, Le long du fleuve. With his second album, Plus que tout au monde, selling over 2 million albums, his songs became a popular success...

 and Patricia Kaas

Patricia Kaas

Patricia Kaas is a French singer and actress.Kaas is a very successful French-speaking singer, with an International following...

 (later, it has also composed for Nolwenn Leroy

Nolwenn Leroy

Nolwenn Leroy, , is a French singer and songwriter, discovered by the French television reality show Star Academy. She is best known for her two Number One singles "Cassé" and "Nolwenn Ohwo!"....

, Natasha St-Pier

Natasha St-Pier

Natasha St Pier is a Canadian pop singer.-Career:Natasha St Pier released her first album, Émergence, in 1996, produced by composer/producer Steve Barakatt...

 and many others). The song is dedicated to Hallyday's grandfather and he addresses directly to him in the lyrics.

The song brings emotion "on a spontaneous mode which uses its most forceful sentences from the universe of the children : constructions inspired by the spoken language which break the semantic rules, idealistic oaths as much as solemn". The music seems to express both nostalgy and regrets, created by the guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 in the introduction and the violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

s in the refrains.

"Tu ne m'as pas laissé le temps" is also available on many French compilations, such as Hit Connection - Best Of 1999, Hit Express 8, La Discothèque du XXè siècle, Lionel Florence: des rencontres et des mots (2002) and Hits de diamant (2007).

The song was awarded the Price Vincent Scotto by the SACEM

SACEM

SACEM may refer to:* The Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique is a French professional association collecting payments of artists’ rights and distributing the rights to the original authors, composers and publishers...

.

In 2006, the song was covered by Chimène Badi

Chimène Badi

-Early life:Chimène Badi was born in Melun, in the Paris suburbs but she spent her entire childhood in the south-west of France, growing up in Villeneuve-sur-Lot with her parents, Chérifa and Mohammed, her sister, Déborah, and her brother, Karim...

, Liane Foly

Liane Foly

Liane Foly, is an popular French blues and jazz singer, actress, presenter and impressionist.-Early years:Foly was born the 16 December 1962 in the 7th arrondissement of Lyon. Her parents, a merchant family in French Algeria, returned to France in 1962 with the Pied-Noir community and moved to...

, Maurane

Maurane

Maurane, real name Claudine Luypaerts, is a Belgian singer. She lives currently in Schaerbeek.Maurane was born at Ixelles. Her father was director in the Académie de Musique de Verviers, and when she was a teenager she took part in several musical contests...

 and Yannick Noah

Yannick Noah

Yannick Noah is a former professional tennis player from France. He is best remembered for being the last French man to win the French Open in 1983, and as a highly-successful captain of France's Davis Cup and Fed Cup teams...

. Their version was included as tenth track of the first CD on Les Enfoirés

Les Enfoirés

Les Enfoirés , is the name given to the singers and performers in the yearly charity concert for the Restaurants du Cœur .-History:...

' album Le Village des Enfoirés

Le village des Enfoirés

Le village des Enfoirés is an album performed by Les Enfoirés, released in 2006. It was recorded during the show at La Halle Tony Garnier in Lyon, on 27 February 2006. It was broadcast on TF1 on 7 April 2006...

.

Chart performances

In France, the song went to number eight on the SNEP singles chart, on 5 June 1999, three days after its release. It stayed for twenty consecutive weeks in the top ten, including a peak atop in the sixth week. Thereafter, the song almost did not stop to drop, first slowly, then quickly and remained in the top 50 for 29 weeks and in the top 100 for 30 weeks. The song is the 181st best-selling single of all time in France.

In Belgium (Wallonia), the single ranked on the Ultratop

Ultratop

Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts...

 40 for 26 weeks. It debuted at number 26 on 19 June 1999, climbed rather quickly and eventually peaked at number two on 7 August. The song managed to stayed for 16 weeks in the top seven, then dropped regularly.

Track listings

• CD single

1. "Tu ne m'as pas laissé le temps" — 4:23
2. "Un Petit Peu de toi" — 3:59

Peak positions

Chart (1999)	Peak position
Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart	2
French SNEP Singles Chart	1

Year-end charts

Chart (1999)	Position
Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart	7
French Singles Chart	6

Certifications

Country	Certification	Date	Sales certified	Physical sales
France	Diamond	November 24, 1999	750,000	801,000

Chart successions