It's strange how one thing will lead you to another and you might wind up somewhere completely unrelated, if you only choose to go with it.

I posted a while back on how I had decided to read Jane Leavy's excellent book on Mickey Mantle, "The Last Boy."

[caption id="attachment_900" align="alignright" width="254" caption="The beginning of the line."]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/9780061767685_0_Cover.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-900" title="9780061767685_0_Cover" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/9780061767685_0_Cover-254x300.jpg" alt="" width="254" height="300" /></a>[/caption]

I also mentioned how at one point during the book, I came across the fact that Mantle was deeply moved by Roy Clark's song, "Yesterday When I Was Young," and actually asked Clark if he would sing the song at his funeral.

I hadn't really liked the song that much in 1968 -- the yesterday when I <em>was</em> young -- but I suppose it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that a song like that might move me more at age 61 than it did at age 18.

Anyway, when I found "Yesterday When I Was Young," I discovered that the original version of it had been a song called "Hier Encore," performed by the legendary Charles Aznavour. And while it's a nice song, while listening to an Aznavour album I bought on iTunes, I found at least five or six songs that were more wonderful.

That led me to more French songs, including an album called "100 Classic French Songs," which were performed by artists that I mostly didn't know. There were a couple of names I did recognize, though. Edith Piaf and Maurice Chevalier were two of them.

Oddly, I knew Chevalier first from an appearance he made on "I Love Lucy" in the '50s. And of course, from "Gigi" later.

So now I've got a mix on my iPod of about 300 French songs, and even though I generally only understand about one of every three words, I really enjoy listening to them.

So Mickey Mantle led me to Maurice Chevalier.

All I had to do was relax and go with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed-WJPQJAB0