The collection included "La Vie en rose" and was released on the Columbia label.

[1][3] The notes on the back cover of the album state: "For this collection Édith Piaf has chosen eight characteristic songs of the Paris streets and cabarets, each one of which tells a story or sets a rueful of sometimes happy mood.

Critic Norman Johnson compared her voice to "grimy velvet", soft with "a hint of nasal scratchiness", and "when she turns it on it becomes as hard and clear as a policeman's whistle."

He concluded that Piaf made 99% of America's popular singers "sound like milk-fed adolescents.

"[5] A fourth critic wrote that Piaf sings on the collection "in the poignant style which made her a toast of French and American night clubs.