Patrick Juvet was a Swiss singer-songwriter who had a string of hit records in France (“Où sont les femmes?”) during the seventies.
He found international success with disco compositions such as “I Love America” (1978) which was his biggest record and was included on the compilation A Night at Studio 54 (1979).
Also in 1979, he wrote the soundtrack to Laura by David Hamilton.
By the early eighties, after the death of disco, his five minutes of fame were over.
Françoise Cactus was a French musician and author.
Her band Stereo Total provided some music for the highly regarded TV series The Trap and All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace by Adam Curtis.
Tonton David was a French reggae singer best known for his song “Peuples du monde” (1990).
Ghédalia Tazartès was a French musician known for his guttural singing.
He is on the famous Nurse with Wound list.
Juliette Gréco was a French actress and singer.
She first appeared on my radar in 2010 in the Gainsbourg movie Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life where she is played by Anna Mouglalis.
Below the song “L’Accordéon” (1962) in which she plays her own black-clad body as an instrument. Very French and sensual.
While cycling to work, it dawned upon me that “L’Accordéon” reminded me of the Mary Poppins song “Chim Chim Cher-ee” (1964).
Zizi Jeanmaire was a French ballet dancer and entertainer.
She is best-known for her song “Mon truc en plumes” (1961) but I give you a version of “Élisa” (1969), written by Serge Gainsbourg.
J. J. Lionel was a Belgian musician whose song “La danse des canards” (1981) is one of the best-selling singles ever in France.
There is popular music and and then there is “danse des canards” popular, almost as popular as “Hava Nagila”.
Both are songs everyone knows but no one can remember where it originates.
And in France, Jean-Loup Dabadie died.
Dabadie wrote the lyrics to the song “But Now I know” (1973), which was released as “Maintenant je sais” (1974) in French.
Christophe was a French singer-songwriter best known for his schmalzy broken heart love song “Aline” (1965).
Apart from that, he gained some fame for his composition “Sunny Road to Salina” (1970), which was featured in Kill Bill Vol. 2. (2004).
Patrick Gibson (ne Francfort) was French musician. He was the drummer of the Gibson Brothers.
Their disco was not my type of disco … but hey … as I often say … you can’t argue with popular.
To his credit, Patrick seemed to have played the drums on the recently deceased Manu Dibango album Manu 76 (1976).
Patrick was in his sixties. Seeing recent photos of the trio seems to confirm that covid and obesity are bad company.
The Gibson Brothers were managed by Jean Kluger (born 1937) and Daniel Vangarde (born 1947). Vangarde’s real name is Bangalter and he is the father of Thomas.