“But despite its catchy melody, it would not likely have ever crossed over if it wasn’t for new lyrics written in English.”

“Roger Williams, Lawrence Welk, and Arthur Lyman… Jan Garber... Chet Atkins… the Ventures… the Baja Marimba Band…. Gene Ammons...” plus Helmut Zacharias, Si Zentner, the list goes on... all instrumentals. The singles and albums that made the 1961-62 Billboard charts were dominated by instrumentals. On topic, in my own collection of pan recordings favors the instrumental by a wide margin.

Oth, an instrumental of Choucoune is a rare bird indeed. I can name less than a half dozen including covers of Irving Burgie's musically identical Don't Ever Love Me.

The English lyrics were more accessible to a world market no doubt, but one can tell the two instrumentals apart in the first line. No English required.