I'm a massive fan of the whole French ye-ye girl thing that happened in the 60s and my favourite ye-ye girl is France Gall. I think she sticks out for me because of her work with Serge Gainsbourg. I love him even though he could be a dickhead. France dealt with quite a lot of controversy in her time, mostly for the song 'Les Sucettes' which Serge wrote about a young girl liking to eat "lollipops". France has a really distinctive voice too, it's so pure and innocent!
France won the Eurovision Song Contest with an amazing Serge penned song called Poupee de Circe, Poupee de Son and watching her perform it mesmerizes me. Also it was recorded in English by another one of my 60s faves Twinkle!
I've got a discography of France's 60s stuff (she turned her back on the ye-ye girl stuff because she found it a bit embarrassing) and its so much fun! Something about French pop singers really get to me. I love Francoise Hardy too and more recently, Alizee has captured the spirit too!
Anyway, this post was just so I could say that I just found out that Chick Habit by April March is actually a cover of a France Gall song 'Les Tomber Les Filles'! MIND BLOWN. I dig finding out stuff has been covered before as you've probably noticed and the orig of Chick Habit is really good! France's stuff always seemed a little darker than her contemparies, this song is a perfect example. According to Wikipedia is roughly translates as "leave the girls alone or you'll get yours" and was non-surprisingly, written by Serge Gainsbourg! BADASS.
Also a quick edit to say that I'm now on Blog Lovin! You can follow me through that too :)
60s French pop songs are the best! I majored in French for a bit in college and I was really into the 60s French pop culture and you're right about Serge. I always thought he was a dick lol. I'd never of heard of this lady before, but she's great.
ReplyDeleteMabel
Mabel Time