Charley Noble: The Rudy Vallee recording you are referring to has been played on our local public radio station a few times. I remember what set off the laughter, too: in one of the choruses, he pronounces "adieu" in strongly accented (but correct) French, and then he pronounces "you" with exactly the same vowel ("yieu"?). This sounded like deliberate but impromptu playfulness on his part, but as you say, it resulted in his (apparently) totally losing his composure. I still find it amazing, first, that both he and the band soldiered on to the end, and secondly, that this version was publicly released. Is it possible the whole thing was planned?

Dale: I enjoyed your site, too. I even followed up the link to Kira Viator's site. She's amazing.