Henri Betti was born at 1 rue Barillerie in the district of Vieux-Nice in a modest family : his father was a house painter and his mother was a fishmonger.
The song is sung by Yves Montand before becoming a standard international jazz with Louis Armstrong, who recorded for the first time in New York in 1950 in the English version of Jerry Seelen.
From 1949 to 1983, his music production is abundant : revues for Le Lido, the Moulin Rouge, the Folies Bergère, the Olympia, the Stardust and the Tropicana in Las Vegas, and many operettas and plays.
Henri Betti and Jean Manse had written a fourth song for the movie, C'est Noël, sung by Fernandel in a scene that was edited out.
In the early 1950s, he made her singing on stage first as vedette américaine featuring at the ABC in 1951 and the Theatre des Deux Anes, in parisian cabarets as Le Bosphore and Chez Tonton, and in summer outdoors in Nice, Cannes, Juan-les-Pins shows.
In 1951, he participated with Albert Willemetz to the foundation of the Comité du Cœur, relief fund for needy artists under the auspices of the SACEM, which will be Vice-President.
In 1958, he collaborated with Jean-Pierre Landreau to compose all the music revues of Lido for the company Lido-Mélodies whose two founding members are Jean Gruyer and Pierre Delvincourt.
In 1959, he collaborated with Bruno Coquatrix to compose the music of Paris mes amours and Avec (lyrics by André Hornez) which were performed by Josephine Baker at the Olympia.
In 1960, he wrote the music for the song Les Étangs de Sologne with the lyrics by Paul Vialar which was sung the same year by Jean Philippe in the TV show Toute la Chanson.
In this radio program, which was broadcast on France Musique on 28 April, were 10 songs by Henri Betti: Le Régiment des mandolines (by Lily Fayol), Tout ça c'est Marseille (by Fernandel), Notre espoir (by Maurice Chevalier), Mais qu’est-ce que j’ai ?
(by Yves Montand), C'est si bon (by Jean Marco and the Étienne Sisters), Les Baobabs (by Roger Nicolas), Je cherche un cœur (by Jacques Pills), Grenelle (by Suzy Delair), Il fait beau (by Tino Rossi) and La Chanson du maçon (by Maurice Chevalier).