Ah yes, Christmas! For the last two years now, I have been offering my wonderful readers a special little X-Mas offering. I already consider it a sort of twisteuse tradition. Remember this one?

I hereby offer you the angels of French pop: Les Anges.

One of their songs, “Une fille mais qu’est-ce que c’est?” (my fave of theirs), has already been featured on the comp “Gentlemen de Paris“. They were very poppy and saccharine, and took most of their inspiration from American “barber shop” pop such as Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, which I am a big fan of. In fact, they do a cover of The Four Seasons’ “Girl Come Running” (“Aimons”) on this EP. Les Anges’ harmonies are right on the money, too.

Their title song, “Les Anges”, makes me smile every time I hear it. Especially near the end, when the final chorus kicks in with more harmonies. I love it! I have no clue who these guys were or what their story was, but they make me happy, and I thought I’d share the happiness.

To top it off, and oddly enough, the musical direction of this EP was by none other than Tony Meehan of The Shadows! If anyone has any details on that collaboration, I would love to know more!

Joyeux Noël!!

Les Anges – Les Anges

Bébé Suong is – to my knowledge – a severely underrated female singer/songwriters of the 50s and 60s.

Her voice reminds me of Shirley Bassey and Eartha Kitt: beautiful, powerful, sexy and very unique. And, much like Bassey, she was first and foremost a jazz vocalist who recorded pop songs.

This beautiful woman was born to a French father and Asian mother. She moved to Belgium at the age of 7, and already at 16 was singing in Jazz clubs and touring. In the 1950′s, she was writing and recording her own jazz material (including the Belgian hit “Rio de Janeiro”), an unbelivably rare thing for a woman at the time.

She wrote and recorded a few pop songs in the 1960s, including “Mine de rien” in 1966 (written, arranged and produced by Suong). The song was a deliberate attempt at having a hit with the young crowd: Bébé was in her 30s by then, yet here she was singing about boys and screaming like a 15 year old at a Beatles concert.

The record unfortunately didn’t do that well. One could argue that her voice was not typical of French pop at the time, and not necessarily a crowd pleaser. Most people I know who hear this single for the first time are either put off by her voice, or consider it the song’s strongpoint.

I’m with the latter: Bébé kicks some serious derrière.

Bébé Suong – Mine de rien

Those are all fine choices, and of course all very subjective, since not everyone is expected to agree with “Top 10″ lists of any kind. Sooooo….that being said, here’s my geeky rant opinion: CBC, you can’t do a Top 10 Greatest Moments in French pop and not include Antoine’s “Les élucubrations d’Antoine“!! It is a song that affected everything and everyone in France in 1966. It sparked debates on the pill, on drugs, on the Vietnam war; it created a “song war” between Hallyday and Antoine, not to mention the countless “Antoine” joke novelty acts who started poppin’ up, like Edouard:

…the song also helped kick start Jacques Dutronc’s career, with his “Et moi, et moi, et moi“, which was a direct parody of Antoine’s song.

Someone over at bootlegsfr.com recently did a brilliant mashup of OutKast’s “Heya” with Antoine’s “Les élucubrations” (“Les Hey-lucubrations”)! Click on the “play” button below to hear it, or download the MP3 by clicking on the image!

“Oh yeah!”

I have to say…it’s quite unnerving to write about an artist you don’t know much about, but when you search what’s out there on Bernard Chabert, there really seems to be a sea of non-information. Or maybe I’m just not looking in the right places.

Regardless, Bernard Chabert is someone I am completely fascinated by. Chabert himself also appeared to be completely under the spell of The Beatles – who wasn’t? – and their distinct sound seemed to easily melt into French pop gems, under Chabert’s masterful direction. I’m absolutely certain that if Chabert had kept up at it, he’d be right up there with Polnareff as one of the greats. Heck, I’m almost to a point of giving him that winning title anyway.

Chabert also seemed to think he was all that…take a look at the cover of his most coveted single (unfortunately not available in this post, due to the fact that I don’t have the ridiculous amount of money it would cost to acquire it):

“Those who don’t believe in Chabert, are the same people who, in seventeen hundred and some peanuts, didn’t believe in WOLFGANG A. MOZART. So there” says the cover.

Oh dear.

Don’t get me wrong: I kinda think Chabert is all that too, and quite frankly I’ll admire anyone who is willing to write *that* on a record cover.

Anyhoo, back to the three records featured on this post.

If you have my friend Satan Bélanger’s fantastic Freakout Total* comp, then you already have one of his songs: Olga Selzer (spelled Helga Selzer on the cover, but Olga on the original record). By far, this is one of his best, and one of THEE most underrated French rock tunes of the late 60s. Again, I’m always baffled as to why Chabert was not a superstar in his own right. The B-side was a cover of Hot Leg’s (ie 10CC’s) Neanderthal Man. Both these songs feature French prog band Triangle.

All these songs are just brilliant. Even that Dear Prudence sort of rip off (Dear Jean). My personal faves are L’Ascension sociale de Francis F and Il part en Californie.

Bernard Chabert – Olga Selzer
Bernard Chabert – L’homme de l’univers (Neanderthal Man)
Bernard Chabert – Easy Miss Lizzy
Bernard Chabert – Mare Serenitatis
Bernard Chabert – Tramway 7B
Bernard Chabert – Dear Jean
Bernard Chabert – Il part en Californie
Bernard Chabert – L’Ascension sociale de Francis F

* available through Mucho Gusto Records: http://www.muchogustorecords.com/

You can click on each of the three cover shots for a closer look.

Henri Salvador, the last true survivor of the French “chanson”, has passed away last week at the age of 90. He was active until his last breath, and did a farewell tour only last December in France. He laughed and smiled through life and through his career.

Here is my favorite song of his for your listening pleasure: the delicious, mother effing weird and brilliant “Beta Gamma l’ordinateur”, in which he describes the world in 2000 through the eyes of a typical (albeit brainwashed) man. For the first time since I started this blog, I feel I should translate lyrics to a song.

“I am a man from the year 2000, I don’t have any problems
I lead a simple life, I don’t think anymore
We have a King who thinks for us, his name is
Beta Gamma, the Computer.

I am a man who is never hungry
I don’t understand why generations before us
Took pleasure in eating
We just eat pills made by
Beta Gamma, the Computer

When I go for a ride in my car
I never drive leisurely
I have a digital map
That plans ahead for me

As for girls, no problem
I don’t waste time telling them
I love them
Every night I must get
A girl that was pre-selected by
Beta Gamma, the Computer

When I think of all those before us
Who couldn’t live without love
I tell you we are happier today
For the man of the year 2000, happiness is
Beta Gamma, the Computer

I don’t know about you, but this sums up the so-called new Millenium to a tee. Wouldn’t you think?

Aurevoir Henri!

Henri Salvador – Beta Gamma, l’ordinateur

Here’s “The In-Crowd” in French (“C’est le Go-Go”), sung by Québécoise Nicole Lord.
I’ve had this 45 for years, and still know nothing about her. No photos, nothing. A little hard on the ears at times when Nicole tries to sustain a note (ouch!), but still a very cool record.

Or maybe I’m always too harsh on these matters?

Bonne année!

Nicole Lord – C’est le Go-Go (“The In-Crowd”)

Well well well…look who’s back!

I know, I had such high hopes for this blog, and then *poof*, I disappeared! Or so it seems. Actually, I moved to a new appartment in October and before Otis and I could get our little music studio back in order, our turn table broke! Now we have a cheap but cute little thing hooked up and here I am.

What better way to make a grand comeback than by posting about the lovely Victoire Scott? This beautiful lady is such a mystery, even her (non official, of course) Myspace invites people to write in if anybody has any info on her.

Baroque Pop never really catched on in France in the late 60s, but as far as the genre goes, Victoire Scott has recorded some of the finest and most beautiful sweet Baroque Pop sounds I have ever heard.

When I bought this record some time in the mid 90s, I didn’t know who Victoire Scott was. I took it home, listened to it, and had chills all over from the absolute beauty of what I was hearing. “4ème Dimension” is a stunning piece of work, describing drug-induced psychedelic hallucinations of angelic proportions.

Strangely enough, it was re-recorded 10 years later by Al Turban, (brother of Christian Turban, who originally wrote the song). I’d love to hear it!

All songs from this Decca EP are beautifully orchestrated by JD Mercier and will just warm your heart with awe and fuzzy goodness.

Joyeux Noël!

Victoire Scott – 4ème Dimension
Victoire Scott – Une fleur dans le coeur
Victoire Scott – Par delà le sang de la terre
Victoire Scott – L’amour en couleur