What I had written earlier, but not posted, in view of the juridical verdict that (a) this song is merely commercial pop music, no matter what language it is in, (b) that an audience for the French version where she dances till she dies is unknown to some, apart from the men who enjoy seeing females, especially young and pretty ones, suffer but who might not form much of a consumer base and (c ) that the French version went into the Great Garbage Can of Forgotten Culture, and that is said to a good thing (for these, see above) is as follows:
Of course, documentation would be needed for any claim that Revil's lyrics have been forgotten in areas Francophone, or superseded by English ones…( I think there might be amateurs singing the Revil version on youtube, but have forgotten)
1.        A link to the Gaylords rendition (2:20 minutes) is still at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeJDmYgn9Xc

2.        It is not clear whether there was any difference between the 2:36 and the 2:16 ("original") links in the now withdrawn youtube links given by Joe Offer on 11 Nov 11 above.

3.         Here, cut-and-pasted are the notes Joe Offer transcribed
Notes from the YouTube Recording of the 1954 Gaylords Version (2:36 minutes): Originally a French tune called "Le Petit Cordonnnier." French was not the chosen language for the one verse in the tune where the boys sang in a different language, however. No, they were Italian fellows and most of their songs contains a verse of Italian.Wonder how that would work today.
Hugo Winterhalter also recorded this with his orchestra with a "friend." Of course, we all knew it was Eddie Fisher but his name did not appear on the label. Winterhalter's version got as high as #9 on Billboard's charts.
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Notes from the YouTube Recording of the "Original" (?) Gaylords Version (2:16 minutes): "The Little Shoemaker" was adapted from a French song entitled "Le petit cordonnier," by Rudi Revil. English lyrics were later added, and the best-selling version of this song was recorded by The Gaylords and was a hit for most of the summer of 1954. At about the same time a recording by Petula Clark became her first chart hit in the U.K. The Gaylords would have several more hits before breaking up and becoming just a duo billed as "Gaylord and Holiday". This recording became so popular with kids that even the Captain Kangaroo tv show used it for several segments during its morning run in the 50's.

The songs have been withdrawn, but the note to the 2:36 link (is at http://www.frequency.com/video/little-shoemaker-by-gaylords-1954/23495388

The note to the 2:16 link is at
http://www.frequency.com/video/gaylords-little/26758314
The end of the note is truncated, but it has been transcribed in full above.

4.         The Hugo Winterhalter/Eddie Fisher 1954 recording and the Alma Cogan 1954 recording, mentioned in the Wikipedia link also given by Joe Offer above, do not appear to be on youtube.

5.        Nor does the Raquel Rastenni, acc. Harry Felbert 1954 Danish recording, "Den lille Skomager" words by Knud Pfeiffer (and Rudi Revil, but *not* the adapters into English according to an entry in the World Cat catalogue).

6.        However, there is a song in Danish charmingly sung by amateurs, probably to the same words , at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im3gPDgqt4E
It would be interesting to see what these Danish words say, and whether or not they are directly from the French or via the English language adaptation, as I think likely. The length is 3:09 minutes, but that does not tell us anything conclusive. The performers use sticks, not clappers, I think.

7.         Japanese
Singer Peggy Hayama (2:01 minutes) is at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbnYMN4-zKU

She has the first stanza and chorus in English; then in Japanese. It is probably thus a direct translation from the English-language words. It appears to omit the second stanza of the English adaptation/abridgement, so it is a further abridgement of the Gaylords, Clark, Clooney, et. al. .

Here is a male singer singing it in Japanese (2:11 minutes):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4iDBxcspzw
There is no English. But there does appear to be a second stanza.

The Japanese words to the first stanza+chorus sound the same in both. The song goes more slowly as the male singer sings it.

8.        The Gaylords have initially "Tap, tap, stitch and tap, making a pair of shoes"; Clooney has "Little shoemaker, stitch and tap" (2), Petula Clark goes straight into the song, as do both Japanese singers.
9.         To my ears, the clappers are a stronger feature in Petula Clark and Rosemary Clooney than they are in the French (sung by Francis Lemarque at www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMp1GD14uxY, (2:49 minutes), and the Gaylords.

10.        There is a charming animation on youtube too
(cf the puppet-scene as Leslie Caron sings 'Hi-lili hi-lili hi-lo" in the relevant film), and at least two amateurs rendering the tune on the accordion , so it might not be entirely forgotten popular culture there today.
11.        The French original narrative by Rudi Revil, as translated above, appears to use the folktale motif of the shoes that go on dancing without the wearer's volition in the Grimms, a motif adapted and made more central to his narrative by Andersen. In Rudi Revil, the maiden is thus rendered contrite, but the narrative has an open ending. There is nothing about her dancing to death (except by association with the former narratives). The English-language translation/adaptation/abridgement omits much of the detail of dialogue, and characters' interaction, truncates and thus significantly alters the narrative (leaves it even more open: did he pursue her, did he ever speak, did he get over her the next day, did he do what his French model did: did she return, what happened to her?) and the characterisation (and motivation). There is thus a movement over time in the softening of the use of the motif. He is not at all inarticulate in the original; only in English-language revision. It might possibly be an interpretive mistake to draw too quickly on psychology for literary works in stylised genres, be they works old or new, high or "commercial", works which make few but gestures in the direction of literary realism or real life. It is a truism that the "merely commercial" work of one age is or can become the classic literature of a subsequent one (cf. Shakespeare). If there is any interest in the song, certainly the French composer Francois Pantillon cannot be called "Forgotten Popular Literature", the French might confirm or deny this about his music and Revil's lyrics in circles Francophone, and I wonder who the arbiters of what or should not be forgotten are, and by what or whose authority they speak.

Sanjay Sircar