Françoise Hardy heard an "American instrumental version" of the song and her manager asked Serge Gainsbourg to provide suitable lyrics for it. The resultant "Comment te dire adieu" was combined with an arrangement relatively closer to the Caravelli version and included on Hardy's 1968 album. Hardy also recorded the song in Italian ("Il pretesto", 1968) and German ("Was mach' ich ohne dich", 1970; collected in the album "Träume", 1970.) The French lyrics are notable for their uncommon rhymes in "ex", within the subject of the song having a sense of "ex" as in "ex-boyfriend".