Les Misérables was originally released as a French-language concept album, as French songwriter Alain Boublil had had the idea to adapt Victor Hugo's novel into a musical while at a performance of the musical Oliver! in London.[2]
The show and the song have been translated into 21 languages, including Japanese, Hebrew, Icelandic, Norwegian, Czech, Polish, Spanish, and Estonian, and there have been 31 cast recordings featuring the song.[3] The London cast version is triple platinum in the UK, for sales of more than 900,000, and platinum in the U.S., for sales of more than one million. The Broadway cast version is quadruple platinum in the U.S. (more than four million sold), where four other versions have also received gold certifications.[4]
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
In popular culture
In 2012, musical theater performer and composer Michael Bihovsky composed a parody of this song about gluten-free and hypoallergenic food called "One Grain More".[6][7]
^Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel are credited as the writers of both the original French and the English version while Herbert Kretzmer is credited as a writer for the English version only.