Most famous, no doubt, is "Le grisbi," from the 1954 film Touchez pas au grisbi, which has been recorded dozens of times; English-language versions are usually called "The Touch." Wiener also set to music two collections of poems by the French poet Robert Desnos (1900-1945).
--Le grisbi: du film "Touchez pas au grisbi" / musique de Jean Wiener; paroles de Marc Lanjean.--Paris: Editions musicales Ray Ventura; Bruxelles: Belgo-Mondial; Geneve: Mondia Music, c1954.
There is also a facsimile of a published title page that reads in part "Le grisbi: slow du film Touchez pas au grisbi." Later (p.
Elsewhere, Porcile describes how Parisian chic in 1950s Paris involved a fascination with culture in the United States, as evidenced by Jean Frangaix's Second Symphony, Georges Attric's score for John Huston's 1953 film Moulin-Rouge, and "le 'tabac' du theme d'harmonica de Jean Wiener pour Touchez pas au grisbi de Jacques Becker, joue par Larry Adler ...," (79) (the "tobacco" of the harmonica theme by Jean Wiener, for Touchez pas au grisbi by Jacques Becker, played by Larry Adler....) He also observes about this and a few similar songs: "Toutes melodies miraculeusement passees dans le patrimoine populaire, comme une memoire anonyme du cinema" (80) (All of these melodies miraculously passed into popular heritage, as an anonymous memory of cinema).
--Le grisbi: du film "Touchez pas au grisbi" / musique de Jean Wiener; paroles de Marc Lanjean.--Edition speciale avec notre extrait de methode pour la guitare.--Paris: Editions musicales Ray Ventura; Bruxelles: Belgo-Mondial; Geneve: Mondia Music, c1954.
--Le grisbi: du film "Touchez pas au grisbi" / paroles de Marc Lanjean; musique de Jean Wiener.--[Paris, France]: [Editions musicales Ray Ventura], c1954.
Fremden Schatten!): Touchez pas au grisbi: Lied und Slowfox ...
--Le grisbi: from the film "Touchez pas au grisbi": piano solo / music by Jean Wiener.--London: Imperia Music Co.
--Le grisbi: du film "Touchez pas au grisbi."--In: Les succes de l'annee ...: album pour piano simplifie.--Paris: R.
--Grisbi-blues: del film Touchez pas au grisbi / Jean Wiener.; Hola!: fox-trot / Juan Andreu.--Madrid: Hispania, cop.