Frédéric was among the first songs written by this Montreal-born songwriting giant, one of the founders of the theatre-music group, Les Bozos. Claude Léveillée’s reputation bridged the Atlantic, impressing the famous French singer, Edith Piaf. She persuaded him to come to Paris where he wrote several tunes for her. It was after his work with Piaf, and upon his return to Montreal, that Léveillée wrote the words to Frédéric on the outside of an envelope. He then rented an hour’s worth of time on a piano in a music store to compose the song. He recorded Frédéric in Quebec and later performed it in the concert halls of France and Belgium. The song, which took Léveillée to stardom, speaks of past loves and old neighbourhood pals, of sadness and nostalgic longings for family and maman’s cooking. Léveillée’s artful songwriting led commentator Benoît L’Herbier to describe him, in La Chanson québécoise, as a “creator of immediate and moving melodies of indefinable beauty.”