“Son Voile Qui Volant” (1957) – Mrs. Beavan with Children * LP: Songs of French Canada * Label: Folkways
I’m not sure if this call-and-response song qualifies as proper turlutte, but it incorporates similar foot-tapping and vocal demands. It’s a well-loved folk song that the Quebecois actor/singer/radio star Ovila Légaré had recorded on Columbia in 1929.
The lyrics are as follows: “Her shawl flew here, her shawl flew there, her shawl that flew, that flew…in the wind…The wind picked up her dress, I saw her pretty white stockings…her lovely garters bordered with white ribbons…Happy, oh ladies, the one to be her lover… They will not often get the chance.”
The seemingly racy song must have been through the ringer enough times by 1957 for the “Mrs. Beavan” on the recording to have felt fine about leading a singalong of those words with her school children.