Les Fleurs

"Les Fleurs" opens Come to My Garden, 3:18, written by Charles Stepney and Richard Rudolph, with Stepney producing; the original label spelled it "Les Fleur". Ramsey Lewis recorded it first, on his 1968 album Maiden Voyage. The album sessions were on November 24 to 26, 1969 at Ter Mar in Chicago, with Phil Upchurch on guitar, Maurice White on drums, Ramsey Lewis on piano and Cleveland Eaton on bass, and the strings include players from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. It is sung from the viewpoint of a flower through its life cycle, a theme of renewal and rebirth, and moves from a quiet pastoral opening to a grand chorus in about three minutes. No comment from Riperton about its meaning was found.

It had no chart entry in its day; a 2020 Record Store Day seven-inch reached number 34 on the UK physical singles chart. Hits' Willie Aron called it a chamber-soul masterpiece, and the Guardian ranked it her second-best song in 2024. Yola called it pure genius, and Caroline Polachek and Yola cite it as an inspiration. 4hero covered and remixed it on Creating Patterns (2001), and it was sampled by The Orb and by Black Sheep on "Similak Child".

It has been used in Inherent Vice (2014), Us (2019, over the end credits), Them, Gaslit, Atlanta, a 2022 BBC Sport film, Back to Black and The Idea of You (both 2024). Whether our upload is the album track is assumed and not verified.