Some of my favorite French songs of the 1960s.
Last edited Sat Dec 6, 2014, 04:36 PM - Edit history (3)
I was a teen during the 60s and still love the music. Not only was terrific music being composed and recorded in the U.S., England, Australia and other Anglo-Saxon countries during the 60s but it was happening throughout the world. There must have been something in the air and water.
I spent a year in a French High School in 1965 and my freshman year of college in 1968 at the American College In Paris. Here's just a sample of some of the great tunes I remember from the radio over there.
Michel Polnareff composed and recorded this tune in 1966 and it became a hit in Europe. Jimmy Page plays 12 string guitar on it and John Paul Jones plays bass (half of what would become Led Zeppelin.
Incidentally, on the flip side of this 45 hit was "Ballade Pour Toi" ("Ballad For You"
which is a love song sung by a man (Polnareff) to another man. Polnareff has long been rumored to be gay or bisexual. I think it was the first time I ever heard of such a song when I was 15.
By French composer Andre Popp and performed by Paul Mauriat and his orchestra, L'Amour C'est Bleu (Love Is Blue) became one of the world's monster hits of 1967, staying several weeks at Billboard's #1 in the U.S.
Another monster international hit is by French composer Francis Lai (who also wrote the love theme of of the film Love Story) is the main theme for the French film A Man and A Woman from 1966.
Another all-time great song is Et Maintenant from 1962, composed and performed by French songwriter/singer Gilbert Becaud. The tune was adapted into English and became one of the great standards under the American title What Now My Love. Becaud had another big hit (Quand On Est Seul Sur Son Etoile) which was adapted into American and became the big 60s hit It Must Be Him for singer Vicky Carr. Becaud also co-wrote Love On The Rocks with Neil Diamond. Gilbert Becaud also wrote and recorded "Je t'apartiens" which when translated into English became the monster '50s hit of the Everly Brothers "Let It Be Me" (my fave Everly Brothers tune).
Non Je N'ai Pas Oublie was an exquisitely beautiful song from 1966 by French composer/singer Enrico Macias. A deeply moving tune, it recounts the forced departure of 1.5 million Europeans from their place of birth in Algeria following the Algerian war. Macias is quite a unique individual; a French Jew of Spanish descent born in Algeria.
La Montagne is a fabulously lovely song from 1964 by poet/singer/songwriter Jean Ferrat. It's about two worlds, the world of cities and the modern, and about nature and the old ways and the disappearance of the latter. Ferrat won many awards for his beautiful and moving tribute song to the Holocaust Nuit Et Brouillard (Night And Fog). His father was a survivor of Auschwitz.
I love this great song from 1965 by composer/singer Charles Aznavour La Boheme, about the passing of youth. It became a monster international hit.
From 1964 and the film Les Parapluies de Cherbourg comes the love theme composed by French composer Michel Legrand. It's maybe one of the most powerful and romantic themes ever written (adapted to English as I Will Wait For You). LeGrand wrote a number of unforgettable songs like What Are You Doing the Rest Of Your Life. Below he sings his 1969 hit Les Moulns De Mon Coeur.
Mireille Mathieu had such an extraordinary voice that many in France were comparing her gritty and powerful voice to that of Edith Piaf. Here she sings one of her first of many, many hits, from 1966.
Nicoletta was another lady with a big voice who had a series of hits. Her biggest hit was Il Est Mort Le Soleil released in 1968. Ray Charles while touring France heard this on the radio and fell in love with the song, translating the lyrics into English and performing it as The Sun Died.
One of my favorites for its beautiful melody was Michel Fugain's Je N'aurai Pas Le Temps from 1967.
No discussion of French songs of the 60s could be complete without mentioning France's poet laureate of song Georges Brassens. A self-avowed anarchist, he wrote simple songs against hypocrisy, self-righteousness, and the bourgeoisie and defended the downtrodden. To understand the French soul, one must listen to the songs of Brassens about real life.
Then we come to the trend in 60's French pop music known as the Yé-yé movement. These were young French female pop singers who sang semi-rock songs with innocent themes by fresh-faced, cute singers. France Gall was only 16 when she recorded the hit Laisse Tomber Les Filles in 1964 (featured in the soundtrack of Tarantino's Death Proof). Her filmic version of the tune appears ahead of its time, with the look of an MTV music video before there was video or MTV. The songs had a fresh and original sound, with a beat but with a twist not found in American or British pop. The girls were all young, beautiful and sexy, but in a naïve way. The movement became wildly popular in Japan and you can still find many Ye-Ye songs in Karaoke playlists, 50 years later. It is said to have inspired Japan's Shibuyo-kei and Japanese Idol music. Some of the tunes were translated and covered by Japanese artists.
Sylvie Vartan from 1968:
France Gall from 1964:
Francoise Hardy from 1968:
The singer known only as Sheila, from 1964:
And while he didn't write actual songs, he was one of the greatest film soundtrack composers of all time. I'm talking about French composer Maurice Jarre who wrote for many films including 1962's Lawrence of Arabia and 1965's Dr. Zhivago.
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Many I'm not, or only slightly familiar with, but this version of Sylvie Vartan's La plus belle pour aller danser gives me Alfred-Hitchcock-thrills (he must have directed this video):
And also the sexiest French duet of all time:
(on edit: the Gainsbourg/Bardot version is probably a bit better)
And this smart aspiring pixie beats Paul Mauriat to the punch:
As far as movie soundtracks, it doesn't get any better than Theme de Camille.
He wrote songs that weren't quite like anyone else's. He wrote the tune above by France Gall, Laisse Tomber Les Filles ("Quit Messing Around With Girls" and he wrote other controversial tunes for her as well like Baby Pop. The first half of this short clip is an interview of Gainsbourg and France Gall about how dark and brutal a song it is, the lyrics describing how life in human society consists of struggle with little reward disguised in an uplifting melody and beat, with a mocking "ye-ye-ye" thrown in. The second part of the clip consists of the song itself. There's even an old fart who came to protest France Gall's new song as being immoral, primitive jungle music (apparently invited there by Gainsbourg for who knows why, maybe to goof on him or on the young people who buy records, or both). It was thought that Gainsbourg was showing contempt for the listener by giving young people a depressing message wrapped in a hip sound.
Here's another hit Gainsbourg wrote for France Gall, Poupee De Cire, Poupee De Son (Wax Doll, Rag Doll). Supposedly, harmonically it was inspired by a Beethoven Sonata. There's a play on words in the French title by Gainsbourg in that it also means "Sound Doll" (i.e. Gall was an empty-headed sound maker). Gainsbourg may have even been expressing disguised contempt for France Gall, or a public that would make her a star. She was very young, had not paid her dues yet as a singer, and had a completely and hopelessly untrained voice. But the public thought her little girl sounding voice was very cute. Gainsbourg gave her lyrics in which she called herself an empty-headed doll.
Finally, Gainsbourg crossed the line and played a very dirty trick on France Gall that ended their relationship of singer and songwriter. He wrote a hit record for her in which she thought she was singing about licorice-flavored lollypops (Des Sucettes A L'Anis) whereas Gainsbourg was actually implying in the song that she loved giving head (words like when the sweet lollypop juice runs down her throat, she's in heaven). And the song's promotional film showing Gall singing interspersed with images of grown women deep-throating lollypops left little doubt (see clip, below). Supposedly, after the song came out and she was on a tour in Japan she discovered the truth and was completely humiliated and wasn't seen for months.
I don't think I've ever heard anything so strange between a songwriter and his singer. Gainsbourg was a weird dude. One of the chief performers of his compositions had an image of a young, sweet, cute, innocent girl (which characterized the Ye-Ye girls in general). Why he would write such a song for her and why he would not inform her, knowing how naive she was is pretty crazy. Gainsbourg was talented but very complex and strange and maybe somewhat misanthropic towards society in general..
So often I forget that music is a lot more than just what I already know. I think I will enjoy getting to know these. 