Juliette Gréco – Sous Le Ciel De Paris (1958)

Juliette Gréco (7 February 1927 – 23 September 2020) was a French singer and actress. Her best known songs are “Paris Canaille” (1962, originally sung by Léo Ferré), “La Javanaise” (1963, written by Serge Gainsbourg for Gréco) and “Déshabillez-moi” (1967). She often sang tracks with lyrics written by French poets such as Jacques Prévert and Boris Vian, as well as singers like Jacques Brel and Charles Aznavour. Her 60-year career came to an end in 2015 when she began her last worldwide tour titled “Merci”.

As an actress, Gréco played roles in films by French directors such as Jean Cocteau and Jean-Pierre Melville.

Juliette Gréco was born in Montpellier, France, to an absent Corsican father, Gérard Gréco; her mother Juliette Lafeychine (1899–1978) was from Bordeaux. Her lineage hails in part from Greece. She did not receive love from her mother in her childhood and suffered from her harsh comments due to being an unwanted child, such as “You ain’t my daughter. You’re the child of rape”. She was raised by her maternal grandparents in Bordeaux with her older sister Charlotte. After the death of her grandparents, her mother took them to Paris. In 1938, she became a ballerina at the Opéra Garnier.

When World War II began, the family returned to the southwest of France. Gréco was a student at the Institut Royal d’éducation Sainte Jeanne d’Arc in Montauban. The Gréco family became active in the Resistance and her mother was arrested in 1943. The two sisters decided to move back to Paris but were captured and tortured by the Gestapo, then imprisoned in Fresnes Prison in September 1943. Her mother and sister were deported to Ravensbrück while Juliette, being only 16, remained in prison for several months before being released. After her release, she walked the eight miles back to Paris to retrieve her belongings from the Gestapo headquarters. Her former French teacher and her mother’s friend, Hélène Duc, decided to take care of her.

In 1945, Gréco’s mother and sister returned from deportation after the liberation of Ravensbrück by the Red Army. Gréco moved to Saint-Germain-des-Prés in 1945 after her mother moved to Indochina, leaving Gréco and her sister behind.

Gréco became a devotee of the bohemian fashion of some intellectuals of post-war France. Duc sent her to attend acting classes given by Solange Sicard. She made her debut in the play Victor ou les Enfants au pouvoir in November 1946 and began to host a radio show dedicated to poetry.

Her friend Jean-Paul Sartre installed her at the Hotel La Louisiane and commented that Greco had “millions of poems in her voice”. She was known to many of the writers and artists working in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, such as Albert Camus, Jacques Prévert and Boris Vian, thus gaining the nickname la Muse de l’existentialisme.

Gréco spent the post-Liberation years frequenting the Saint-Germain-des-Prés cafes, immersing herself in political and philosophical bohemian culture. As a regular at music and poetry venues like Le Tabou on Rue Dauphine, she was acquainted with Jean Cocteau, and was given a role in Cocteau’s film Orphée (1950).

She made her debut as a cabaret singer in the Parisian cabaret Le Bœuf sur le toit in 1949, performing the lyrics of a number of well-known French writers; Raymond Queneau’s “Si tu t’imagines” was one of her earliest songs to become popular.

She made her film debut in Les frères Bouquinquant (1947) and appeared in several French films. When Darryl F. Zanuck saw her photo in Time, she was offered a role in The Sun Also Rises (1957), and it led to other Hollywood-financed films.

Gréco was married three times, to:

actor Philippe Lemaire (1953–1956)
actor Michel Piccoli (1966–1977)
pianist Gérard Jouannest (1988–2018; his death)

With Lemaire, she had a daughter, Laurence-Marie, born in 1954. Laurence-Marie Lemaire died from cancer in 2016 aged 62.

In the year leading up to his death in January 1949, Gréco was the lover of married racing driver Jean-Pierre Wimille and suffered a miscarriage after his death.

According to Spanish writer Manuel Vicent, Juliette Gréco was Albert Camus’s lover. She also was in relationships with French singer Sacha Distel and Hollywood producer Darryl F. Zanuck.

In 1949, she began an affair with the American jazz musician Miles Davis. In 1957, they decided to always be just lovers because their careers were in different countries and his fear of damaging her career by being in an interracial relationship. They remained lovers and friends until his death in 1991.

Gréco also dated U.S. record producer Quincy Jones. According to Jones’ autobiography, Davis was irritated with him for years when he found out.

Gréco had three rhinoplasties; in Paris in 1953 and 1956, and in London in 1960.

In September 1965, Gréco attempted suicide by an overdose of sleeping pills. She was found unconscious in her bathroom and taken to the hospital by Françoise Sagan.

Gréco lived between Paris and Saint-Tropez.

A leftist, she supported François Mitterrand in the 1974 presidential election, and was an initial investor in Minute, when it was mainly non-political and focused on the entertainment world.

Gréco died on 23 September 2020 at the age of 93. (wikipedia)

And here´s a nice EP from Germany with songs, recorded during the Fifties.

She was called the “grande dame de la chanson” and here you can hear why.
What a wonderful woman !

Personnel:
Juliette Gréco (vocals)
+
Michel Legrand (piano on 02.)
+
André Grassi & His Orchestra (on 01. + 04.)
André Popp & His Orchestra (on 03.)

Tracklist:
01. Sous Le Ciel De Paris (Giraud/Dréjac) 3.19
02. L’amour (Ferré) 2.54
03. La Valse Des “Si” (Sauguet) 2.36
04. Embrasse-Moi (Prévert/Berg) 3.06

*
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Georges Moustaki – Enregistrement Public Olympia (1978)

Georges Moustaki (born Giuseppe Mustacchi; 3 May 1934 – 23 May 2013) was an Egyptian-French singer-songwriter of Jewish Italo-Greek origin, best known for the poetic rhythm and simplicity of the romantic songs he composed and often sang. Moustaki gave France some of its best-loved music by writing about 300 songs for some of the most popular singers in that country, such as Édith Piaf, Dalida, Françoise Hardy, Yves Montand, Barbara, Brigitte Fontaine, Herbert Pagani, France Gall, Cindy Daniel, Juliette Gréco, Pia Colombo, and Tino Rossi, as well as for himself.

Georges Moustaki was born Giuseppe Mustacchi in Alexandria, Egypt, on 3 May 1934. His parents, Sarah and Nessim Mustacchi, were Francophile, Greek Jews from the ancient Romaniote Jewish community. Originally from the Greek island of Corfu, they moved to Egypt, where young Giuseppe was born and first learned French. They owned the Cité du Livre − one of the finest book shops in the Middle East – in the cosmopolitan city of Alexandria, where many ethnic communities lived together.

Moustaki’s father spoke five languages whereas his mother spoke six. The young Giuseppe and his two older sisters spoke Italian at home and Arabic in the streets. The parents placed Giuseppe and his sisters in a French school where they learned to speak French.

At the age of 17, after a summer holiday in Paris, Moustaki obtained his father’s permission to move there, working as a door-to-door salesman of poetry books. He began playing the piano and singing in nightclubs in Paris, where he met some of the era’s best-known performers. His career took off after the young singer-songwriter Georges Brassens took Moustaki under his wing. Brassens introduced him to artists and intellectuals who spent much of their time around Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Out of gratitude, Moustaki adopted the first name of the only musician he called “master”.

Moustaki said that his taste for music came from hearing various French singers – Édith Piaf, Charles Trenet, Henri Salvador, Georges Ulmer, Yves Montand, Georges Guétary and Luis Mariano – sing.

Moustaki was introduced to Édith Piaf in the late 1950s by a friend whose praise of the young songwriter was so flattering that Piaf, then at the peak of her fame, requested somewhat sarcastically to hear him sing his best works. “I picked up a guitar and I was lamentable. But something must have touched her. She asked me to go and see her perform that same evening at the Olympia music hall and to show her later the songs I had just massacred.”

He soon began writing songs for Piaf, the most famous of which, Milord, about a lower-class girl who falls in love with an upper-class British traveller, reached number one in Germany in 1960 and number 24 in the British charts the same year. It has since been performed by numerous artists, including Bobby Darin and Cher.

Piaf was captivated by Moustaki’s music, as well as his great charm. Piaf liked how his musical compositions were flavored with jazz and styles that went beyond France’s borders. Moustaki and Piaf became lovers and embarked on what the newspaper Libération described as a year of “devastating, mad love”, with the newspapers following “the ‘scandal’ of the ‘gigolo’ and his dame day after day”.

After a decade of composing songs for various famous singers, Moustaki launched a successful career as a performer himself, singing in French, Italian, English, Greek, Portuguese, Arabic and Spanish.

Moustaki’s songwriting career peaked in the 1960s and 1970s with songs like “Sarah”, performed by Serge Reggiani, and “La Longue Dame brune”, written for the singer Barbara (Monique Serf).

In 1969 Moustaki composed the song “Le Métèque” — ‘métèque’ is a pejorative word for a shifty-looking immigrant of Mediterranean origin – in which he described himself as a “wandering Jew” and a “Greek shepherd”. Serge Reggiani rejected it and the record companies refused to produce it. Moustaki then sang it himself, on a 45rpm disc, and it became a huge hit in France, spending six non-consecutive weeks at number one in the charts. “A small, subliminal settling of scores became the hymn of anti-racism and the right to be different, the cry of revolt of all minorities,” Moustaki said of the song.

In 1971 Moustaki adapted the Ennio Morricone/Joan Baez song “Here’s to You” under the new title “Marche de Sacco et Vanzetti” for his album “Il y avait un jardin” (“There was a garden”).

In 1972 Moustaki popularized the translation of two songs by Mikis Theodorakis, “l’Homme au cœur blessé” and “Nous sommes deux”, the latter being a French version of Imaste dio.

Moustaki’s philosophy was reflected in his 1973 song “Déclaration”: “I declare a permanent state of happiness and the right of everyone to every privilege. I say that suffering is a sacrilege when there are roses and white bread for everyone.”

Moustaki became a French citizen in 1985.

In 2008, after a 50-year career during which he performed on every continent, Moustaki recorded his last album, Solitaire. On it, he recorded two songs with China Forbes.

In 2009, in a packed concert hall in Barcelona, he told the stunned audience that he was giving his last public performance as he would no longer be capable of singing because of an irreversible bronchial illness.

Moustaki married Annick “Yannick” Cozannec when he was twenty years old and she was twenty-five. Their daughter, Pia, was born the following year. They lived in an apartment at rue des Deux-Ponts on the Île Saint-Louis in Paris for many years, before his lung illness forced him to leave his beloved Paris to seek out warmer and cleaner air in the French Riviera.

In his last interview given to Nice-Matin newspaper in February 2013, Moustaki said, “I regret not being able to sing in my bathroom. But singing in public, no. I’ve done it all…. I’ve witnessed magical moments.”

Georges Moustaki died on 23 May 2013 at a hospital in Nice, France, after a long battle with emphysema.

The French president, François Hollande, called Moustaki a “hugely talented artist whose popular and committed songs have marked generations of French people”. French Culture Minister Aurélie Filippetti hailed Moustaki as an “artist with convictions who conveyed humanist values … and a great poet”. Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë remembered Moustaki as “a citizen of the world who was in love with liberty, a true rebel until his last days”, who had given France “unforgettable compositions and lyrics”. Juliette Gréco, one of France’s biggest singers in the 1960s, grieved the loss of a “poet” and “unique person”. “He was a fine, elegant man who was infinitely kind and talented,” she told RTL radio.

Moustaki’s funeral was held on 27 May 2013. It was attended by his widow Annick Cozannec and their daughter Pia, the French Culture Minister Aurélie Filippetti and numerous personalities from the entertainment world – Guy Bedos, Véronique Genest, Maxime Le Forestier, Jacques Higelin, Brigitte Fontaine, Arthur H, Valérie Mairesse, Hervé Vilard, Irène Jacob, François Corbier, Cali, Sapho, Enrico Macias, François Morel, Costa Gavras.

Moustaki was buried according to Jewish rites in a family vault at the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris a few meters from the grave of his former amour Édith Piaf. (by wikipedia)

And here´s  one of his live recordings … He was accompanied by excellent musicians.

If you love or appreciate chansons, then you should listen to this album … it’s a great document from one of the truly best chanson artists.

Recorded live at the Olympia, Paris, April 1977

Personnel:
Benhamadi Ameziane (drums)
Bernard Brunel (bass)
Marta Contreras (vocals)
Michel Delaporte (percussion)
Daniel Goyone (piano)
Mario Lima (guitar)
Didier Lockwood (violin)
Georges Moustaki (vocals)
Kim Poh (flute)
+
José Pisa (guitar on 12.)

Tracklist:
01. Presentation (Moustaki) 2.30
02. Homme (Je Te Salue) (Moustaki) 1.41
03. On L’Apelle Folie (Moustaki) 2.51
04. Alexandrie (Moustaki) 3.00
05. Mon Amour Aux Yeux Noirs (Traditional/Moustaki) 1.33
06. Kaimos (Theodorakis/Christodoulou) 4.48
07. Le Meteque (Moustaki) 1.58
08. Sans La Nommer + Reprise (Moustaki) 4.54
09. Nous Avons Le Temps (Moustaki/Milchberg/Folklore) 5.59
10. Bahia (Moustaki/Lima) 5.29
11. Petit Fable (Le Nymphettomane) (Moustaki) 4.29
12. Flamenco (Moustaki) 4.44
13. Porquoi Mon Dieu (Moustaki/Hadjidakis) 3.37
14. Chanson Cri (Moustaki) 4.11
15. Cantique (Moustaki) 4.10
16. La Philosophie (Moustaki) 9.14
17. Porquoi Je Chante (Moustaki) 1.53
18. Il Est Trop Tard (Moustaki) 2.11
19. Donne Du Rhum A Ton Homme (Moustaki) / La Bamba (Traditional) / Frère Jacques (Traditional) 7.36
20. Marche De Sacco Et Vanzetti (Morricone/Moustaki) 2.34
21. Le Facteur (Moustaki/Hadjidakis) 4.07
22. L’Apolitique (Moustaki) 3.31
23. Et On S’En Va (Moustaki) 1.20
+
24. Humblement Il Est Venu (Moustaki) 3.42
25. Les Amis De Georges (Moustaki) 3.09
26. Ma Liberté (Moustaki) 2.41
27. Le Tango De Demain (Piazzolla/Moustaki) 3.09

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More from Georges Moustaki in this blog:

Mireille Mathieu – Celui Que J’Aime + 3 (1966)

Mireille Mathieu ( born 22 July 1946) is a French singer. She has recorded over 1200 songs in eleven languages, with more than 150 million albums sold worldwide.

Mireille Mathieu was born on 22 July 1946 in Avignon, France, the eldest daughter of a family of fourteen children; the youngest brother was born after she moved to Paris. Her father Roger and his family were native to Avignon, while her mother Marcelle-Sophie (née Poirier) was from Dunkirk. She arrived in Avignon in 1944 as a refugee from World War II after her grandmother had died, and her mother went missing. Roger, with his father Arcade, ran the family stonemason shop just outside the Saint-Véran cemetery main gate. The Mathieu family have been stonemasons for four generations. Today the shop is named Pompes Funèbres Mathieu-Mardoyan, owned and managed by her sister Réjane’s family.

The Mathieu family lived in poverty, with a huge improvement in their living conditions in 1954, when subsidized housing was built in the Malpeigné quarter near the cemetery. Then again in 1961 they moved to a large tenement in the Croix des Oiseaux quarter southeast of the city.

Roger had once dreamed of becoming a singer, but his father Arcade disapproved, inspiring him to have one of his children learn to sing with him in church. Mireille included her father’s operatic voice on her 1968 Christmas album, where it was mixed in with the Minuit Chrétiens song. Mireille’s first paid performance before an audience, at age four, was rewarded with a lollipop when she sang on Christmas Eve 1950 during Midnight Mass. A defining moment was seeing Édith Piaf sing on television.

Mireille performed poorly in elementary school because of dyslexia, requiring an extra year to graduate. She was born left-handed, and her teachers used a ruler to strike her hand each time she was caught writing with it.[6] She became right-handed, although her left hand remains quite animated while singing. She has a fantastic memory, and never uses a prompter on stage. Abandoning higher education, at age 14 (1961), and after moving to Croix des Oiseaux, she began work in a local factory in Montfavet (a suburb southeast of town) where she helped with the family income and paid for her singing lessons. Popular at work, she often sang songs at lunch, or while working. Like her parents, she is a short woman at 1.52 m (5 feet) in height. Her sister Monique (French: [mo.nikə]), born on 8 July 1947, began work at the same factory a few months later. Both were given bicycles on credit to commute with, making for very long days, and many bad memories of riding against the mistral winds. The factory went out of business, so Mireille and two sisters (Monique, and Christiane) became youth counselors at a summer camp before her rise to fame, a summer where she had her fortune told by Tarot cards by an old Gypsy woman, saying she would soon mingle with Kings and Queens.

Mireille is Roman Catholic, and her adopted patron saint is Saint Rita, the Saint for the Impossible. Mireille’s paternal grandmother Germaine née Charreton, assured her that Saint Rita was the one to intercede to God for hopeless cases. Beyond religion, like many artists, she is unabashed about superstition and luck. When asked to reveal some of her superstitions, she said: “The most important one is to never mention any of them.” She has stage fright, and can often be seen making the sign of the cross before moving out on stage. (wikipedia)

And here´s one of her countless singles / EP´s  …

If you like Chansons (like I do) … listen and enjoy !

What a wonderful voice !

Personnel:
Mireille Mathieu (vocals)
+
a bunch of unknown studio musicians

Alternate frontcovers:

Tracklist:
01. Celui Que J’Aime (Aznavour) 2.53
02. Est-Ce Que Tu M’Aimeras (Chauby/du Pac) 2.11
03. Viens Dans Ma Rue (Pascal/Mauriat) 2.32
04. Et Merci Quand Meme (Chaumelle/Kesslair) 2.14

*
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More from Mireille Mathieu in this blog:

The official website:

Jane Birkin – Rendez-vous (2004)

Jane Mallory Birkin OBE (14 December 1946 – 16 July 2023) was a British-French[a] singer and actress. She attained international fame and notability for her decade-long musical and romantic partnership with Serge Gainsbourg. She also had a prolific career as an actress, mostly in French cinema.

A native of London, Birkin began her career as an actress, appearing in minor roles in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blowup (1966), and Kaleidoscope (1966). In 1968, she met Serge Gainsbourg while co-starring with him in Slogan, which marked the beginning of a years-long working and personal relationship. The duo released their debut album Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg (1969), and Birkin also appeared in the controversial film Je t’aime moi non plus (1976) under Gainsbourg’s direction. Though she mostly worked in France where she had become a major star, Birkin occasionally appeared in English-language films such as the Agatha Christie adaptations Death on the Nile (1978) and Evil Under the Sun (1982).

After separating from Gainsbourg in 1980, Birkin continued to work as both an actress and a singer, appearing in various independent films and recording numerous solo albums. In 1991, she appeared in the miniseries Red Fox and in the American drama film A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries, in 1998. In 2016, she starred in the Academy Award-nominated short film La femme et le TGV, which she said would be her final film role.

Birkin lived mainly in France from the late 1960s onwards. She was the mother of photographer Kate Barry, with her first husband John Barry; actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg, with Serge Gainsbourg; and musician Lou Doillon, with Jacques Doillon. In addition to her acting and musical credits, she lent her name to the Hermès Birkin handbag.

Birkin’s humanitarian interests led her to work with Amnesty International on immigrant welfare and the AIDS epidemic. Countries she visited included Bosnia, Rwanda, Israel, and Palestine.

As a child, Birkin demonstrated in the streets of London against capital punishment. In the 1970s, she campaigned for the right to abortion. She appeared at the Bobigny trial , in support of four women accused of having helped the high school student Marie-Claire Chevalier to have an abortion following a rape.

Birkin campaigned against the far-right in France, participating in a protest denouncing the qualification of Jean-Marie Le Pen in the second round of the 2002 presidential election. In 2017, she performed at a free concert at the Place de la République organised in opposition to Marine Le Pen in the 2017 presidential election.

Birkin also demonstrated support for immigrants, denouncing the French government’s policy towards undocumented migrants in 2010. The same year, she protested outside the residence of the Minister of Immigration, Éric Besson. She also announced that she was sponsoring a young Congolese who had requested political asylum. In 2015, she marched in support of refugees in Paris.

In September 2018, following the resignation of French environment minister Nicolas Hulot, Birkin was one of the 200 artists and scientists who signed an open letter published on the front page of the daily Le Monde titled “The Greatest Challenge in the History of Mankind”, which urged politicians to act “firmly and immediately” in fighting climate change and the “collapse of biodiversity”

On 6 September 2021, it was reported that Birkin was doing well after having suffered a stroke

On 16 July 2023, Birkin was found dead at her home in Paris. She was 76 years old. (wikipedia)

Rendez-vous is a Jane Birkin album released in 2004.

After the new songs offered by several French artists on À la légère and the Arabesque recital, Jane Birkin resumes a large number of collaborations, this time with artists from all over the world, and in the form of duets.

The cover and booklet feature photos of the singer taken by her photographer daughter, Kate Barry. The rest of the booklet is decorated with scribbled excerpts from her appointment book.

Like its predecessor, the album was a success, and was certified gold by the SNEP in just 4 months, selling over 100,000 copies in France.

The first single from the album is the duet with Mickey 3D “Je m’appelle Jane”, which was performed at the Victoires de la musique 2005. (wikipedia)

Jane Birkin’s first album after the death of lover and workmate Serge Gainsbourg reimagined his music in North African idioms. This, the second, though infused with Gainsbourg’s smoky, laconic charms, proves that Birkin remains an iconic presence in her own right. An album of (largely) subtly contrived duet and collaborations, its indisputable centrepiece is an electronically enhanced version of Roxy Music’s In Every Dreamhome a Heartache. Bryan Ferry sings the way faded velvet looks, and to hear Birkin sing “deluxe and delightful” (she’s describing an inflatable sex doll) is to be utterly devastated.

Portishead’s Beth Gibbons contributes the haunted ripple that is Strange Melody, and almost everyone else (Caetano Veloso, Paulo Conte, various continental luminaries) realises that their job is to show Birkin in the best possible light, which isn’t exactly hard. Only Placebo’s bleating Brian Molko lets her down, his drama-queen histrionic Smile appallingly hammy. “Did she love the fragility of flowers and of birds?” Birkin enquires, rhetorically, at one point. In the distance, violins quiver. You realise, unworthily, that you’re in the presence of an entirely un-English sophistication. (theguardian.com)

Personnel:
Jane Birkin (vocals)
Gonzales (piano, drums, bass, guitar)
+
Manu Chao (guitar on 10.)
Feist (background vocals on 01.)
Beth Gibbons (background vocals on 06.)
Stefan Rodesco (strings on 09. + 11.)
+
unknown orchestrta conduicted by Michel Boutillier & Christophe Guiot
+
horns on 05., 12. – 14. + 16.:
Frédéric Couderc – Julien Chirol – Michel Feugere – Rémi Sciuto

Tracklist:
01. Avec Mickey (3D): Je M’Appelle Jane (Furnon) 3.29
02. Avec Alain Chamfort: T’As Pas Le Droit D’Avoir Moins Mal Que Moi (Chaléat/Duvall) 4.12
03. Avec Bryan Ferry: In Every Dream Home A Heartache (Ferry) 6.35
04. Avec Alain Souchon: Palais Royal (AlanskiChamfort/Chaléat) 3.43
05. Avec Etienne Daho: La Grippe (Fontaine/Higelin) 2.42
06. Avec Beth Gibbons: Strange Melody (Gibbons) 3.53
07. Avec Caetano Veloso: O Leaozinho (Veloso) 3.19
08. Avec Miossec: Pour Un Flirt Avec Toi (Delpech/Vincent) 3.12
09. Avec Feist: The Simple Story (Feist/Gonzales) 3.56
10. Avec Manu Chao: Te Souviens-Tu ? (Chao) 2.36
11. Avec Brian Molko: Smile (Molko/Corkett) 3.39
12. Avec Françoise Hardy: Surannée (Biolay/Zeidel) 2.33
13. Avec Yosui Inoue: Canary Canary (Inoue) 4.46
14. Avec Paolo Conte: Chiamami Adesso (Conte) 2.51
15. Avec Alain Souchon: Port-Bail (Souchon) 2.26
+
16. Avec Yosui Inoue– Canary Canary (Version Tokyo) (Inoue) 4.55

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Marlene Dietrich – Marlene Dietrich’s Berlin (1965)

Marie Magdalene “Marlene” Dietrich (27 December 1901 – 6 May 1992) was a German and American actress and singer whose career spanned from the 1910s to the 1980s.

In 1920s Berlin, Dietrich performed on the stage and in silent films. Her performance as Lola-Lola in Josef von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel (1930) brought her international acclaim and a contract with Paramount Pictures.

She starred in many Hollywood films, including six iconic roles directed by Sternberg: Morocco (1930) (her only Academy Award nomination), Dishonored (1931), Shanghai Express and Blonde Venus (both 1932), The Scarlet Empress (1934) and The Devil Is a Woman (1935), Desire (1936) and Destry Rides Again (1939).

She successfully traded on her glamorous persona and exotic looks, and became one of the era’s highest-paid actresses. Throughout World War II she was a high-profile entertainer in the United States. Although she delivered notable performances in several post-war films, including Billy Wilder’s A Foreign Affair (1948), Alfred Hitchcock’s Stage Fright (1950), Billy Wilder’s Witness for the Prosecution (1957), Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil (1958) and Stanley Kramer’s Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), she spent most of the 1950s to the 1970s touring the world as a marquee live-show performer.

Marlene Dietrich visiting the UFA film studios, Berlin (1960):

Dietrich was known for her humanitarian efforts during World War II, housing German and French exiles, providing financial support and even advocating their American citizenship. For her work on improving morale on the front lines during the war, she received several honors from the United States, France, Belgium and Israel. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Dietrich the ninth greatest female screen legend of classic Hollywood cinema. (wikipedia)

And here is one of the many fine records of Marlene Dietrich … a very loving homage to her hometown Berlin and of course this album is also a homage to those 20s of the last century in Berlin (the roaring 20´s !), which has lost nothing of this peculiar fascination until today.

Marlene singt Berlin, Berlin is a Marlene Dietrich’s studio album released in 1965. The album is Dietrich’s homage to the city with which she’s most often associated: Berlin. The design for the original cover was done by Marlene herself. Orchestrated and conducted by Burt Grund. Issued on Polydor (catalogue number 238102). Issued in the US by Capitol Records under the title, Marlene Dietrich’s Berlin (Capitol ST 10443). Dietrich said this was her best album. (wikipedia)

The recordings were made in Copenhagen in 1964.

With both orchestral and small jazz combo accompaniment, the great German actress and singer Marlene Deitrich sings an album of songs in praise of the city with which she’s most often associated: the arty, intellectual, sometimes decadent, often visually stunning, iconic city of Berlin–its culture, its eccentricities, and its people. (by allmusic)

Personnel:
Marlene Dietrich (vocals)
+
Bert Grund Orchester

The German edition:

Tracklist:
01. 01. Solang‘ noch Unter’n Linden (Haller/Rideamus/Kollo/Wolff) 1.31
02. Du hast ja keine Ahnung (Schönfeld/J.Gilbert/Königsberger/R.Gilbert) 1.03
03. Durch Berlin fließt immer noch die Spree (J.Gilbert/KönigsbergerR.Gilbert) 2.20
04. Das Lied vom Angeln (Mit dir, da möcht‘ ich Sonntags angeln gehn) (Haller/Rideamus/Kollo/Wolff) 2.46
05. Nach meine Beene ist ja ganz Berlin verrückt (Hardt/Kollo) 3.29
06. Ja, das haben die Mädchen so gerne (Schönfeld/J.Gilbert/Königsberger) 3.07
07. Wenn ein Mädel einen Herrn hat (Pordes-Milo/Haller/Kollo/Wolff) 1.53
08. Lieber Leierkastenmann (Kollo) 3.34
09. Das war in Schöneberg (Bernauer/Schanzer/Kollo) 2.31
10. Unter’n Linden, Unter’n Linden (Bernauer/Schanzer/Kollo) 2.11
11. Das war sein Milljöh (Kollo) 2.15
12. Wenn du einmal eine Braut hast (Urban/Hirsch/Heye) 2.01
13. Es gibt im Leben manchesmal Momente (Bromme/Steinberg) 1.45
14. Wo hast du denn die schönen blauen Augen her (Erwin/Katscher) 2.44
15. Solang‘ noch Unter’n Linden (Haller/Rideamus/Kollo/Wolff) 1.28

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Serge Gainsbourg – Confidentiel (1964)

Serge Gainsbourg was the dirty old man of popular music; a French singer/songwriter and provocateur notorious for his voracious appetite for alcohol, cigarettes, and women, his scandalous, taboo-shattering output made him a legend in Europe but only a cult figure in America, where his lone hit “Je T’Aime…Moi Non Plus” stalled on the pop charts — fittingly enough — at number 69.

Born Lucien Ginzberg in Paris on April 2, 1928, his parents were Russian Jews who fled to France following the events of the 1917 Bolshevik uprising. After studying art and teaching, he turned to painting before working as a bar pianist on the local cabaret circuit. Soon he was tapped to join the cast of the musical Milord L’Arsoille, where he reluctantly assumed a singing role; self-conscious about his rather homely appearance, Gainsbourg initially wanted only to carve out a niche as a composer and producer, not as a performer.

Still, he made his recording debut in 1958 with the album Du Chant a la Une; while strong efforts like 1961’s L’Etonnant Serge Gainsbourg and 1964’s Gainsbourg Confidentiel followed, his jazz-inflected solo work performed poorly on the charts, although compositions for vocalists ranging from Petula Clark to Juliette Greco to Dionne Warwick proved much more successful. In the late ’60s, he befriended the actress Brigitte Bardot, and later became her lover; with Bardot as his muse, Gainsbourg’s lushly arranged music suddenly became erotic and delirious, and together, they performed a series of duets — including “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Harley Davidson,” and “Comic Strip” — celebrating pop culture icons.

Gainsbourg’s affair with Bardot was brief, but its effects were irrevocable: after he became involved with constant companion Jane Birkin, they recorded the 1969 duet “Je T’Aime…Moi Non Plus,” a song he originally penned for Bardot complete with steamy lyrics and explicit heavy breathing. Although banned in many corners of the globe, it reached the top of the charts throughout Europe, and grew in stature to become an underground classic later covered by performers ranging from Donna Summer to Ray Conniff.

Gainsbourg returned in 1971 with Histoire de Melody Nelson, a dark, complex song cycle which signalled his increasing alienation from modern culture: drugs, disease, suicide and misanthropy became thematic fixtures of his work, which grew more esoteric, inflammatory, and outrageous with each passing release. Although Gainsbourg never again reached the commercial success of his late-’60s peak, he remained an imposing and controversial figure throughout Europe, where he was both vilified and celebrated for his shocking behavior, which included burning 500 francs on a live television broadcast and recording a reggae version of the sacred “La Marseillaise.”

Gainsbourg also created a furor with the single “Lemon Incest,” a duet with his daughter, the actress Charlotte Gainsbourg. In addition, he posed in drag for the cover of 1984’s Love on the Beat, a collection of songs about male hustlers, and made sexual advances towards Whitney Houston on a live TV broadcast. Along with his pop music oeuvre, Gainsbourg scored a number of films, and also directed and appeared in a handful of features, most notably 1976’s Je T’Aime…Moi Non Plus, which starred Birkin and Andy Warhol mainstay Joe Dallesandro. He died on March 2, 1991. (by Jason Ankeny)

Gainsbourg Confidentiel, first released in 1963 and reissued this year by Rumble Records, finds Serge Gainsbourg singing over no more than Elek Bacsik’s guitar and Michel Gaudry’s bass. It’s an obscure record, at least in the States, that might startle those used to the lavish orchestrations of Melody Nelson or his early records with Alain Goraguer. Think of it as equivalent to Beach Boys’ Party: A one-off novelty that burns with the soul of an experimental artist.

The arrangements work so long as Gainsbourg is performing quiet songs. While the “rock” songs, such as “Chez les yé-yé” and “Amour sans amour,” beg for a drumbeat, such ballads as “La saison des pluies” and “Sait-on jamais où va une femme quand elle vous quitte” translate better to this setting. Like so much of his music, this is an experiment, but its novelty often outweighs its practicality. It’s telling he’d never go back to this format; his next album Gainsbourg Percussions, inspired by then-faddish Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji, was another such one-off.

Gainsbourg’s songwriting would sharpen as he grew older and more well-read, but some of his tics and obsessions are already apparent, like how material things stand in for romantic dissatisfaction. On “Scenic Railway” it’s the train his lover childishly wants him to take her on. On “La fille au rasoir” it’s an electric razor, over which she can’t hear anything he says. On “Talkie Walkie” it’s a device which, as Gainsbourg announces portentously in English, is “made in Japan.” Gainsbourg never learned English, but he sings it with a certain arrogant self-assurance.

Another obsession in plain view here, alas, is with very young girls. The girl on “Talkie Walkie” is young enough to find in a schoolyard. “Temps de yoyo” translates to “the time of yo-yos,” which he contrasts with “the time of yé-yé”—French teen pop, its name derived from the “yeah, yeah” shouts of its singers. He laments as his love-interest moves from one to the other, and on “Chez les yé-yé” he follows her to the dance, intent on getting “his Lolita” lest he do something violent.

One is not sure if these lines reflect Gainsbourg’s own sexual preferences, the rampant fetishization of children in early rock history, or his taste for scandal. He infamously performed a duet with his then-12 year-old daughter Charlotte on “Lemon Incest,” and his best-known record Histoire de Melody Nelson concerns the seduction of a 15-year-old. But considering the lyrics here, and the unwholesomeness of the songs he wrote for yé-ye girl France Gall shortly thereafter, it’s worth questioning his intent in shoehorning himself into the teenybopper industry.

“Poupée de cire, poupée de son” celebrated pop stars as puppets for older men,“Les sucettes” was a lollipop-themed double entendre that went over the clueless singer’s head and made her a laughing stock. Today, these songs are sort of legendary—victories for the songwriter, no matter their effect on the singer. Gainsbourg is a textbook example of a powerful man in entertainment not only going unpunished but actually being celebrated for his sexual greed. This is something all who encounter his art must reckon with, and on Confidentiel it’s on naked display. (Daniel Bromfield)

Personnel:
Elek Bacsik (guitar)
Serge Gainsbourg (vocals)
Michel Gaudry (bass)

Tracklist:
01. Chez Les Yé-Yé 2.29
02. Sait-On Jamais Où Va Une Femme Quand Elle Vous Quitte 1.59
03. Le Talkie-Walkie 2.04
04. La Fille Au Rasoir 1.45
05. La Saison Des Pluies 3.29
06. Elaeudanla Téïtéïa 1.39
07. Scenic Railway 2.35
08. Le Temps Des Yoyos 2.38
09. Amour Sans Amour 2.04
10. No No Thank’s No 2.33
11. Maxim’s 1.51
12. Negative Blues 1.34

All songs written by Serge Gainsbourg
except 05.: written by Elek Bacsik & Serge Gainsbourg

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Lucio Dalla – The Best Of Lucio Dalla (1995)

Lucio Dalla OMRI (4 March 1943 – 1 March 2012) was an Italian singer-songwriter, musician and actor. He also played clarinet and keyboards.

Dalla was the composer of “Caruso” (1986), a song dedicated to Italian opera tenor Enrico Caruso, and “L’anno che verrà” (1979).

Dalla was born in Bologna, Italy. He began to play the clarinet at an early age, in a jazz band in Bologna, and became a member of a local jazz band called Rheno Dixieland Band, together with future film director Pupi Avati. Avati said that he decided to leave the band after feeling overwhelmed by Dalla’s talent. He also acknowledged that his film, Ma quando arrivano le ragazze? (2005), was inspired by his friendship withDalla.

In the 1960s the band participated in the first Jazz Festival at Antibes, France. The Rheno Dixieland Band won the first prize in the traditional jazz band category and was noticed by a Roman band called Second Roman New Orleans Jazz Band, with whom Dalla recorded his first record in 1961 and had the first contacts with RCA records, his future music publisher.

Singer-songwriter Gino Paoli hearing Dalla’s vocal qualities, suggested that he attempt a soloist career as a soul singer. However, Dalla’s debut at the Cantagiro music festival in 1965 was not successful probably due to both his physical appearance as well as his music, which was considered too experimental for the time. His first single, a rendition in Italian of the American traditional standard “Careless Love” was a failure, as it was his first album, 1999, that was released the following year. His next album, Terra di Gaibola (from the name of a suburb of Bologna), was released in 1970 and contained some early Dalla classics. His first hit was “4 Marzo 1943”, which achieved some success due to the Sanremo Festival. The original title of the song was supposed to be “Gesù bambino”, however in those years there was still stiff censorial control over the content of songs, and the title was changed to Dalla’s birth date.

Dalla’s recording debut as a soloist took place in 1964, with the release of the 45 rpm-single “Lei (non è per me)” (B-side: “Ma questa sera”). In the 1970s, Dalla started a collaboration with the Bolognese poet Roberto Roversi. Roversi wrote the lyrics to Dalla’s next three albums Il giorno aveva cinque teste (The Day Had Five Heads) (1973), Anidride solforosa (Sulphur dioxide) (1975) and Automobili (Automobiles) (1976).

Although these albums did not sell in large numbers, they were noted by critics for the unusual mix of Roversi’s lyrics with Dalla’s improvisations, along with the latter’s sometimes experimental twists and composition abilities. The duo had already broken up by the time the concept album Automobili was released. Roversi, who had been against the album’s release, chose the pseudonym “Norisso” when it was time to register the songs. The album, however, included one of Dalla’s most popular songs, “Nuvolari”, named after the famous 1930s Italian racer.

Affected by the end of the collaboration, Dalla decided to write the lyrics of his next albums himself. The first album of this new phase was Com’è profondo il mare (1977), in which Dalla was accompanied by members of future pop band Stadio.

In 1979, his popularity was confirmed by the success of the Banana Republic album and the first of two self-titled albums, Lucio Dalla, followed by Dalla in 1980.

The song “Caruso”, released in 1986, has been covered by numerous international artists such as Luciano Pavarotti and Julio Iglesias. The version sung by Pavarotti sold over 9 million copies, and another version was a track on Andrea Bocelli’s first international album, Romanza, which sold over 20 million copies worldwide.[5] Maynard Ferguson also covered the song on his album “Brass Attitude”, after having previously paid tribute to Caruso with his rendition of “Vesti la giubba” (titled as “Pagliacci”) on the album Primal Scream.[6]

The 1990 hit single “Attenti al lupo” gave Dalla wider success in Europe. He was invited to duet on Pavarotti and friends, singing his hit “Caruso” with Pavarotti.

In 2010, Dalla came back to work with Francesco De Gregori during the “Work in Progress” tour and album. Dalla’s main influences were to be found in jazz, but his songs ranged from folk (“Attenti al lupo”) and pop (“Lunedì”), from Italian singer-songwriters (the albums from Com’è profondo il mare to Dalla) to classical and opera (“Caruso”).

Lucio Dalla was outed as gay after his funeral (at which his longterm associate and partner Marco Alemanno, with whom he had shared a house, spoke), although he had not publicly acknowledged this during his life, saying in a 1979 interview “Non mi sento omosessuale” (“I do not feel gay”).

This outing sparked debate about Italian society’s attitudes towards homosexuality..

On the morning of 1 March 2012, three days before his 69th birthday, Dalla died of a heart attack, shortly after having breakfast at the hotel where he was staying in Montreux, Switzerland, having performed in the city the night before. He was in the company of Marco Alemanno when he died. An estimated 50,000 people attended his funeral in Bologna.

Dalla’s 1986 song “Caruso”, dedicated to Italian tenor Enrico Caruso, entered the Italian Singles Chart after his creator’s death, peaking at number two for two consecutive weeks. The single was also certified platinum by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry. (wikipedia)

And here´s a nice collection of his best songs … I added his hit “Caruso”.

Personnel:
Lucio Dalla (vocals)
+
many, many studio musians

Tracklist:
01. Futura 6.01
02. Anna E Marco 3.43
03. Come E’ Profondo Il Mare 5.23
04. Cosa Sarà 4.17
05. Balla Balla Ballerino 5.43
06. Telefonami Tra Vent’anni 4.45
07. Cara 5.32
08. Disperato Erotico Stomp 5.47
09. La Sera Dei Miracoli 5.13
10. L’anno Che Verrà 4.24
11. La Signora 3.57
12. Mambo 5.01
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13. Caruso 5.13

All songs written by Lucio Dalla
except 04, written by Rosalino Cellamare & Lucio Dalla

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Riccardo Cocciante – Quando Si Vuole Bene (1° Tempo) (1986)

Riccardo Cocciante was born on 20 February 1946 in Saigon, French Indochina, now Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to an Italian father from Rocca di Mezzo, L’Aquila, and a French mother. At the age of 11, he moved to Rome, Italy, where he attended the Lycée français Chateaubriand. He has also lived in France, the United States, and Ireland. (wikipedia)

Born of an Italian father and a French mother (so it’s no surprise he uses the name Richard for his French records), he often performed in pop events, and his first album, “Mu” (1972) presented a mixture of progressive rock and religion.

But it was only with his following works, “Poetry (Poesia)” (1973) and “Soul (Anima)” (1974), that his very personal approach to song-writing became apparent: the coarse voice strokes the chords of a tortured intimacy (“Poesia”) or bursts into an irrepressible, almost raging cry, that became famous with “Soulless beauty (Bella senz’anima)” and “When a love story’s over (Quando finisce un amore)”.
If “Dawn (Alba)” (1975) hovers in some way between manierism and ritual, it is with “Concert for Margherita (Concerto per Margherita)” (1976) that Cocciante reaches superstar status: arranged by Vangelis, the album contains several very successful songs (“Spring (Primavera)”, “When you’re fond (Quando si vuole bene)”), not least “Margherita” – written four-handed with Marco Luberti – which is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful Italian love songs of all time.

An artist by this time know well known throughout Europe and South America, with “Riccardo Cocciante” (1977) and “…and I sing (… e io canto)” (1979) he continues along the successful path set by the earlier albums: in ’77, as proof of the appreciation he enjoys as a songwriter, both Mina and Mia Martini decide to record versions of his “Once again (Da capo)”. A change comes with “A deer in springtime (Cervo a primavera)” (1981), in which Mogol – soon after the end of his collaboration with Lucio Battisti – lends a hand with the lyrics: the collaboration produces excellent results, as is proven by pieces such as the one that lends it’s title to the album and “My dearest friend (Il mio amico carissimo), both fated to become old favourites. The presence of Mogol has beneficial effects on the subsequent “Cocciante” (1982), that is steeped with future classics such as “A hole in the heart (Un buco nel cuore)”, “A new friend (Un nuovo amico)”, “On a bicycle (In bicicletta)” and “Blue nostalgia (Celeste nostalgia)”.

Having changed recording company, moving from Rca to Virgin, Cocciante attempts to make the big leap into international pop: the results however are uneven and the only song to stand out is “Questione di feeling” (from the album “The Sea of poppies (Il mare dei papaveri)”, 1985), performed as a duet with Mina.

Having retired with his wife Catherine Boutet to the United States, the singer only returns to Italy to take part in the Sanremo Festival in 1991, which he wins with “If we stay together (Se stiamo insieme)”. The rest is recent history: the success achieved with the music for “Notre Dame du Paris”, the work inspired by Victor Hugo’s tale which, following its Parisian debut in 1998, is now being staged worldwide and selling millions of records, and established him as an internationally famous artist.
In 2006, Sony-Bmg publishes “All my dreams (Tutti i miei sogni)”, a three CD box set with a collection of all his hit songs: they range from “Now I am the light (Ora che io sono la luce)” and “Man (Uomo)” both from Mu up to the recent “You Italia (Tu Italia)” and “On the lips and in the mind (Sulle labbra e nel pensiero)” from “Songs” recorded in 2005. (Francesco Troiano)

And here´s a real nice live recording:

‘Quando si vuole bene’ is the first live album by Riccardo Cocciante.The album was recorded during the singer-songwriter’s tour in (1986).

Wonderful Pop Chansons in Italian, very lovingly arranged and played by excellent musicians.

For all romantic readers of this blog.

Recorded live during the 1986 Italian Tour

Personnel:
Dino d’Autorio (bass)
Riccardo Cocciante (vocals, piano)
Valerio Galavotti (saxophone, flute)
Maurizio Lucantoni (keyboards)
Agostino Marangolo (drums)
Carlo Pennisi (guitar)
Michele Santoro (guitar, keyboards)
+
choir:
Chattanooga:
Ezio Mazzola – Vittorio Fiorillo – Rossella Cassese – Daniela Cassese – Riki Graziano

Tracklist:
01. Tu Sei Il Mio Amico Carissimo (Mogol/Cocciante) 3:08
02. Un Buco Nel Cuore 4:30
03. In Bicicletta 4:08
04. Sulla Terra Io E Lei (Roda-Gil/Cocciante 4:12
05. Primavera (Luberti/Cocciante) 5:10
06. Cervo A Primavera 5:05
06. È Passata Una Nuvola 3:46
07. Il Mare Dei Papaveri 3:31
08. Celeste Nostalgia 3:59
09. Parole Sante, Zia Lucia 4:56

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Françoise Hardy – Same (Soleil) (1970)

Françoise Madeleine Hardy (French: [fʁɑ̃swaz aʁdi]; born 17 January 1944) is a French singer-songwriter. She made her musical debut in the early 1960s on Disques Vogue and found immediate success with her song “Tous les garçons et les filles”. As a leading figure of the yé-yé movement, Hardy “found herself at the very forefront of the French music scene”, and became “France’s most exportable female singing star”, recording in various languages, appearing in movies, touring throughout Europe, and gaining plaudits from musicians such as Bob Dylan, Miles Davis and Mick Jagger. With the aid of photographer Jean-Marie Périer, Hardy also began modeling, and soon became a popular fashion icon as well.

As the yé-yé era drew to a close in the late 1960s, Hardy sought to reinvent herself, casting off the fashionable girl next door image that Périer had created for her and abandoning the “cute” and catchy compositions that had characterized her repertoire up to that point. She began working with more accomplished songwriters such as Serge Gainsbourg and Patrick Modiano. Her 1971 album La question represented an important turning point in her career, moving towards a more mature style; it remains her most acclaimed work and has generated a dedicated cult following over the years. The early 1970s also marked the beginning of Hardy’s renowned involvement with astrology, becoming an expert and writer on the subject over the years.

Hardy remains a popular figure in music and fashion, and is considered an icon of French pop and of the 1960s. The singer is also considered a gay icon and has “repeatedly declared that her most devoted friends and fans are gay.” Several of her songs and albums have appeared in critics’ lists.

In May 2000, she made a comeback with the album Clair-obscur on which her son played guitar and her husband sang the duet “Puisque vous partez en voyage”. Iggy Pop and Étienne Daho also took part. (by wikipedia)

And here´s her 12th album:
With the album “Soleil” Francoise Hardy has succeeded in creating a small, unrecognised masterpiece. The 12 songs, which range from pop to pop, form a conceptual coherence and do not fall off at any point! As in my previous reviews, the author team Mick Jones (Spooky Tooth, Foreigner) and Thomas F. Browne are again involved. “Fleur De Lune” (Jones recorded it before with Johnny Hallyday) is the first highlight on this album and if you can listen structurally, you know at the latest now where Led Zeppelin got their “Stairway To Heaven” from 😉

The labels of the Japanese release of Soleil, under the title Conte de Fées:

Francoise’s compositions “Point” or “Un Petit Sourire , Un Petit Mot” are also very strong and, for me, actually make really good artists. But the delicate fragile voice supports the eerily beautiful harmonies at any time in many quiet pieces like “Effeuille Molle Coeur”… Conclusion: Francoise Hardy with very strong material that has been skilfully realised by Mick Jones and Thomas F. Browne and allows you to breathe a little easier, especially after a hard day 😉 (Jack Paw)

Personnel:
Françoise Hardy (vocals)
+
a bunch of unknown studio musicians
+
Tommy Brown (drums)
Micky Jones (guitar)

Tracklist:
01. Point (Hardy) 2.48
02. San Salvador (Traditional) 2,21
03. Fleur de Lune (Jones/Hardy/Brown) 3.06
04. Effeuille-Moi Le Coeur (Lech/Llous) 2.07
05. Un Petit Sourire, Un Petit Mot (Hardy) 2.46
06. Le Crabe (Roda-Gil/Estardy) 2.54
07. Mon Monde N’Est Pas Vrai (Never Learn To Cry) (Napier-Bell/Wickham/Hardy) 2.44
08. Tu Ressembles A Tous Ceux Qui Ont Eu Du Chagrin (Hardy) 2.03
09. L’Ombre (Jones/Brown/Delanoä) 2.13
10. Soleil (Sunshine) (Howard/Alpert/Hardy) 3.45
11. Je Fais Des Puzzles (Jones/Brown/de Courson/Modiano) 2.54
12. Dame Souris Trotte (de Courson/Marques) 1.37

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The edition from Brazil:

More from Françoise Hardy:

The official website:

Various Artists – Les Chansons Inmmortelles (1979)

A chanson, “song”, from Latin cantio, gen. cantionis) is in general any lyric-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular. A singer specializing in chansons is known as a “chanteur” (male) or “chanteuse” (female); a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier.

The earliest chansons were the epic poems performed to simple monophonic melodies by a professional class of jongleurs or ménestrels. These usually recounted the famous deeds (geste) of past heroes, legendary and semi-historical. The Song of Roland is the most famous of these, but in general the chansons de geste are studied as literature since very little of their music survives.

The chanson courtoise or grand chant was an early form of monophonic chanson, the chief lyric poetic genre of the trouvères. It was an adaptation to Old French of the Occitan canso. It was practised in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Thematically, as its name implies, it was a song of courtly love, written usually by a man to his noble lover. Some later chansons were polyphonic and some had refrains and were called chansons avec des refrains. A Crusade song was known as a chanson de croisade.
Burgundian chanson

In its typical specialized usage, the word chanson refers to a polyphonic French song of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Early chansons tended to be in one of the formes fixes—ballade, rondeau or virelai (formerly the chanson baladée)—though some composers later set popular poetry in a variety of forms. The earliest chansons were for two, three or four voices, with first three becoming the norm, expanding to four voices by the sixteenth century. Sometimes, the singers were accompanied by instruments.

The first important composer of chansons was Guillaume de Machaut, who composed three-voice works in the formes fixes during the 14th century. Guillaume Dufay and Gilles Binchois, who wrote so-called Burgundian chansons (because they were from the area known as Burgundy), were the most important chanson composers of the next generation (c. 1420-1470). Their chansons, while somewhat simple in style, are also generally in three voices with a structural tenor. Musicologist David Fallows includes the Burgundian repertoire in A Catalogue of Polyphonic Songs 1415-1480. These works are typically still 3 voices, with an active upper voice (discantus) pitched above two lower voices (tenor and altus) usually sharing the same range.

Later 15th- and early 16th-century figures in the genre included Johannes Ockeghem and Josquin des Prez, whose works cease to be constrained by formes fixes and begin to feature a pervading imitation (all voices sharing material and moving at similar speeds), similar to that found in contemporary motets and liturgical music. The first book of music printed from movable type was Harmonice Musices Odhecaton, a collection of ninety-six chansons by many composers, published in Venice in 1501 by Ottaviano Petrucci.

Beginning in the late 1520s through mid- century, Claudin de Sermisy, Pierre Certon, Clément Janequin, and Philippe Verdelot were composers of so-called Parisian chansons, which also abandoned the formes fixes, often featured four voices, and were in a simpler, more homophonic style. This genre sometimes featured music that was meant to be evocative of certain imagery such as birds or the marketplace. Many of these Parisian works were published by Pierre Attaingnant. Composers of their generation, as well as later composers, such as Orlando de Lassus,[clarification needed] were influenced by the Italian madrigal. Many early instrumental works were ornamented variations (diminutions) on chansons, with this genre becoming the canzone, a progenitor of the sonata.

French solo song developed in the late 16th century, probably from the aforementioned Parisian works. During the 17th century, the air de cour, chanson pour boire and other like genres, generally accompanied by lute or keyboard, flourished, with contributions by such composers as Antoine Boesset, Denis Gaultier, Michel Lambert and Michel-Richard de Lalande.

During the 18th century, vocal music in France was dominated by opera, but solo song underwent a renaissance in the 19th century, first with salon melodies and then by mid-century with highly sophisticated works influenced by the German Lieder, which had been introduced into the country. Louis Niedermeyer, under the particular spell of Schubert, was a pivotal figure in this movement, followed by Édouard Lalo, Felicien David and many others.

Another offshoot of chanson, called chanson réaliste (realist song), was a popular musical genre in France, primarily from the 1880s until the end of World War II.[1][2] Born of the cafés-concerts and cabarets of the Montmartre district of Paris and influenced by literary realism and the naturalist movements in literature and theatre, chanson réaliste was a musical style which was mainly performed by women and dealt with the lives of Paris’s poor and working class. Among the better-known performers of the genre are Damia, Fréhel, and Édith Piaf.

Later 19th-century composers of French art songs, known as mélodie and not chanson, included Ernest Chausson, Emmanuel Chabrier, Gabriel Fauré, and Claude Debussy, while many 20th-century and current French composers have continued this strong tradition.

In France today “chanson” or “chanson française” typically refers to the music of singers such as Charles Trenet, Guy Béart, Jacques Brel, Jean Ferrat, Georges Brassens, Édith Piaf, Charles Aznavour, Barbara, Dalida, Serge Reggiani, Léo Ferré, Mireille Mathieu and Serge Gainsbourg and more recently Mano Solo, Dominique A, Matthieu Chedid, Benjamin Biolay, Jean-Louis Murat, Miossec, Mathieu Boogaerts, Daniel Darc, Vincent Delerm, Maurane, Zaz, Bénabar, Renan Luce, Olivia Ruiz. Chanson can be distinguished from the rest of French “pop” music by following the rhythms of French language, rather than those of English, and a higher standard for lyrics. (by wikipedia)

And here´s a lob budget sampler with a few highlights from this genre, recorded in the Sixties.

Enjoy the magic of this music … and I have to travel again to Paris … sometimes …

This album was originally released in 1972, my copy is a re-release in 1979.

Tracklist:
01. Gilbert Becaud: Je t’attends (Bécaud/Aznavour) 2.22
02. Edith Piaf: Milord (Mannot/Moustaki) 4.28
03. Charles Aznavour: Sur ma vie (Aznavour) 3.05
04. Adamo: Tombe la neige (Adamo) 2.53
05. Enrico Macias: Mon coeur d’attache (Dermarny/Blanc/Macias) 3.32
06. Richard Anthony: Donne moi ma chance (Hal/Bacharach) 2.27
07. Gilbert Becaud: Et maintenant (Delanoe/Bécaud/Bratke) 3.40
08. Edith Piaf: Non, je ne regrette rien (Vaucaire/Dumont/Siegel) 2.21
09. Charles Aznavour: Une enfant (Aznavour/Chauvigny) 3.43
10. Adamo; Quand les roses (Adamo) 2.31
11. Enrico Macias: Enfants de tous pays (Macias/Demarny/Blanc) 2.57
12. Richard Anthony: Aranjuez mon amour (Rodrigo) 4.54

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