"I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)" is the third single from Grace Jones

Grace Jones

Grace Jones is a Jamaican-American singer, model and actress.Jones secured a record deal with Island Records in 1977, which resulted in a string of dance-club hits. In the late 1970s, she adapted the emerging electronic music style and adopted a severe, androgynous look with square-cut hair and...

' album Nightclubbing

Nightclubbing

Nightclubbing is the fifth studio album by Grace Jones, released in 1981. It is the second of three post-disco albums that Jones made at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas and became Jones' commercial breakthrough and also formed the basis of her groundbreaking concept tour A One Man Show...

. The song juxtaposes "Libertango

Libertango

Libertango is a composition by tango composer Ástor Piazzolla, recorded and published in 1974.The title is a portmanteau merging "Libertad" and "Tango", symbolizing Piazzolla's break from Classical Tango to Tango Nuevo....

", an Argentine

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 tango classic, written by bandoneon

Bandoneón

The bandoneón is a type of concertina particularly popular in Argentina and Uruguay. It plays an essential role in the orquesta típica, the tango orchestra...

ist Ástor Piazzolla

Ástor Piazzolla

Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla was an Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music...

 and first recorded by the composer himself in 1974, against a reggae

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

 arrangement and new lyrics penned by Jones herself and Barry Reynolds. The song also includes spoken parts in French; "Tu cherches quoi? À rencontrer la mort? Tu te prends pour qui? Toi aussi tu détestes la vie..." (Translated: "What are you searching for? To meet death? Who do you think you are? You hate life, you too...") Jones also recorded a Spanish language version of the track entitled "Esta Cara Me Es Conocida".

"I've Seen That Face Before" which describes the darker side of Parisian nightlife counts as one of Jones' signature tunes. It was also featured in key moments of the 1988 thriller movie Frantic

Frantic (film)

Frantic is a 1988 thriller film directed by Roman Polanski and starring Harrison Ford and Emmanuelle Seigner.- Synopsis :Harrison Ford plays Dr. Richard Walker, a surgeon visiting Paris with his wife Sondra for a medical conference. At their hotel, she is unable to unlock her suitcase, and Walker...

, set in Paris and starring Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford is an American film actor and producer. He is famous for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and as the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, John Book in Witness and Jack Ryan in...

, the song however did not make it onto the film's accompanying soundtrack album. It also features in Raw Deal (1986 film)

Raw Deal (1986 film)

Raw Deal is 1986 action film directed by John Irvin and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. It is the story of an elderly and embittered high-ranking FBI agent who wants to get revenge against a Mafia organization, and sends a former FBI agent played by Schwarzenegger to destroy the organization from...

The single peaked at the German Single Charts #16.

12" version

The single was also released as a long version (Time 5:36). This version is available on the Grand 12-Inches 7 CD compilation, compiled by Ben Liebrand

Ben Liebrand

Ben Liebrand is a dance music DJ. He has produced artists such as Forrest and MC Miker G & DJ Sven and remixed tracks by artists such as Salt N Pepa, Sting, TLC, Fun Fun, Tavares, Bill Withers, Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, Rick Astley, SWV and Phil Collins...

 and also Movie Klub80 - Episode 3 compilation CD (Warner Music Poland) (4EVERMUSIC).

Music video

The song is famous for its video, with Jones performing the track and playing accordion, although the original was actually performed on bandoneón

Bandoneón

The bandoneón is a type of concertina particularly popular in Argentina and Uruguay. It plays an essential role in the orquesta típica, the tango orchestra...

. The single cover (shown right) recreates an image from that video.

The video is also the closing track of Jones' classic A One Man Show

A One Man Show

A One Man Show is a music documentary featuring American singer Grace Jones, filmed in 1981–1982. The film was first released in 1982 to promote the album Living My Life and was re-issued on VHS and laserdisc by Island Records, PolyGram and Spectrum Music through the 1980s and early 1990s...

music documentary, which includes some additional footage.

Cover versions

Artists who have recorded the song with Jones' reggae arrangement and sometimes also translated lyrics include Julien Clerc

Julien Clerc

Julien Clerc, , born as Paul Alain Leclerc on 4 October 1947 in Paris, Clerc's parents divorced when he was still young. He grew up listening to classical music in his father's home, while his mother introduced him to the music of such singers as Georges Brassens and Edith Piaf...

, Guy Marchand

Guy Marchand

Guy Marchand is a French actor, musician and singer. He is best known for his role as the main character in the French police procedural series Nestor Burma.- Filmography :* 1970 : Boulevard du Rhum, directed by Robert Enrico...

, Herb Alpert

Herb Alpert

Herbert "Herb" Alpert is an American musician most associated with the group variously known as Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, or TJB. He is also a recording industry executive — he is the "A" of A&M Records...

, Gary Burton

Gary Burton

Gary Burton is an American jazz vibraphonist.A true original on the vibraphone, Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the usual two-mallets. This approach caused Burton to be heralded as an innovator and his sound and technique are widely imitated...

, Al Di Meola

Al Di Meola

Al Di Meola is an acclaimed American jazz fusion and Latin guitarist, composer, and record producer of Italian origin. With a musical career that has spanned more than three decades, he has become respected as one of the most influential guitarists in jazz to date...

, Richard Galliano

Richard Galliano

Richard Galliano is a French accordionist.-Biography:He was drawn to music at an early age, starting with the accordion at 4, influenced by his father Lucien, an accordionist originally from Italy, living in Nice.After a long and intense period of study Richard Galliano (born December 12, 1950,...

, Camilla Henemark

Camilla Henemark

Camilla Henemark, also known as La Camilla, is a Swedish singer, actress, political spokesperson and former fashion model.-Biography:...

, Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011...

, Viola Valentino

Viola Valentino

Viola Valentino is an Italian singer.-Biography:Virginia Minnetti was born in 1953. She started her career as a singer in 1968 under the name Virginia and later began to sing with her then husband in a duet named Renzo & Virginia. Some time later Virginia was noticed by Giancarlo Lucariello, a...

, Iva Zanicchi

Iva Zanicchi

Iva Zanicchi is an Italian pop singer.Iva Zanicchi's career began in 1962 at the Castrocaro Festival of New Voices, where she gained third place. She won the Sanremo song festival in 1967 with Non pensare a me, in 1969 with Zingara and again in 1974 with Ciao cara, come stai?...

 and The Tango Saloon

The Tango Saloon

The Tango Saloon is an experimental tango band from Sydney, Australia. Their self-titled debut, a "tango-flavored album with a twist of spaghetti western", was released in 2006 by Ipecac Recordings, the American record label run by Mike Patton and Greg Werckman...

. In 2005, International DeeJay Gigolo Records

International DeeJay Gigolo Records

International DeeJay Gigolo Records is a German electronic music record label run by techno artist DJ Hell . The label was founded in Munich in 1996 as an affiliate of label Disko B. It is now based in Berlin and is Germany's most successful electronic music record label, specialising in electro,...

 released a record featuring two DJ Hell

DJ Hell

This article is about Helmut Josef Geier. You may also be looking for Darryl Hell.Helmut Josef Geier, professionally known as DJ Hell is a German house-techno DJ...

 remixes of the song http://www.discogs.com/Grace-Jones-Hell-Ive-Seen-That-Face-Before-Libertango-Hell-Interpretations/release/432280.

Charts

Chart (1981)	Peak position
Holland	2
Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....	9
Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...	16
Sweden Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....	20