"Charles Trenet was a very well-known French singer and composer and he wanted a special sound for a song he had just composed, 'The Soul of the Poets.' So I went in and showed Trenet the sounds I could do on the Ondioline and he said, 'That's the sound I want!'

"I recorded with him in 1951...and guess who the guitar player was? Django Reinhart. I was very impressed and I said to Django, 'I don't know much of music' and he said 'Don't worry. I don't know music either.'

"One day I demonstrated the Ondioline for a man I did not know and I explained it to him in my very bad English, which was even worse than it is now. After the demonstration, he started talking -- and he spoke French. He was very appreciative of the Ondioline. And his name: Leonard Bernstein. I asked him why he let me speak bad English and he said, 'Because it is good exercise for you.'

"When I met Walt Disney in the beginning of 1961, he invited me to Hollywood to create some sound effects for his cartoons. You still hear the same sound effects on some of my tunes.

"It's like a subliminal thing. That's what makes the music happy. My music is always happy and humorous. Because I wanted my music to do that -- to be understood by children. Because all children move under music."