La Foule is the French-language version of the song that began life as the 1936 Peruvian waltz Que nadie sepa mi sufrir, composed by Ángel Cabral with Spanish lyrics by Enrique Dizeo. The French adaptation, with lyrics by Michel Rivgauche, was popularized by Edith Piaf and released in 1957. The tune blends chanson and bolero and tells of a chance encounter in a crowded moment, where a singer meets a man in a dense crowd, only for the crowd to separate them and for her to never see him again, the crowd acting as a kind of fate or demiurge. The song has been widely recorded in Spanish and other languages by artists such as Alberto Castillo, Hugo del Carril, María Dolores Pradera, La Sonora Dinamita, and José Feliciano.
