Michel Legrand- The New I Love Paris

So, yes, due to this blog’s two year anniversary, we are doing Sunday blogs.  I am trying to use Sunday for records that have a special place in this blog’s history, and this one is a fine choice.  It features songs that have been mainstays of this site as well as an artist who I have sung the praises of.  Also, this was a steal at $1.

The pervy looking French dude on the cover is Michel Legrand (born in Courbevoie, France in 1932). He is a prolific French writer, composer, arranger and conductor.  With his work on over 200 film and TV scores, including his Oscar winning “Windmills of You Mind” for the Thomas Crown Affair, I regularly point our Legrand’s work on two of my favorite French movies. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort.  I have posted Umbrellas on this blog.  Still looking for a copy of Rochefort.  Anyway, Legrand is still alive today.

Legrand burst on American radar with his version of the Cole Porter standard “I Love Paris” in 1954.  This 1959 is an updated release of songs associated with the City of Lights.  All the big titles are on here.  The album features some vibrant and interesting arrangements.   The songs are wonderfully constructed, imaginatively executed, and overall, carried out beautifully.  One complaint, however, the songs on each side segue into each other so there are no breaks.  It does makes for a dreamy sequence, not unlike Legrand’s film work.  However, it does make it hard to isolate tracks for samples.

Speaking of which, I decided to highlight three of the songs I post on a normal basis on this blog.  First off, we have the combination of “I Love Paris” with “Mademoiselle de Paris”.  Second, we have “La Vie en Rose” with “Under Paris Skies”. I could write more about these but today, I will let the music speak for itself.

Great record.  Top billing.

Vicky Autier- Vive Paris!

DSCN5261 (800x782)This was most likely $1.60.  On my quest to find French female singers, I came across this.  A-1622163-1279227046.jpeg

I was not able to find out much about Vicky Autier and quite frankly, I was not as eager to do much more than the basic fact checking.  I am assuming she is French.  Besides singing in Paris, at the time of this record, she was pulling regular gigs in New York and London.  She also sings in English, Spanish, and Italian on occasion.  She made three records that I know of for Capitol and was also signed to MCA.  She did a flury of singles and EP’s in France.  And that is where the story ends.  My money is on being dead now.

This was released in 1960 under the Capitol Of The World T series.  The songs are fifties style night club types.  While not the Ye-Ye of the 60’s that I like, it is still not bad.  Songs I liked include “Monte-Carlo”, “Va Mon Ami”, “Mon Oncle”, and the odd “Ballad Irlandaise”, a song about a British solider serving in Ireland, a strange subject to be tackled by the French. Anyway, the arrangements are swank and Autier’s voice is pretty good.DSCN5262 (800x770)Nifty Blog with covers from the Capitol Of The World Series

For a sample, I went with “Adieu Tristesse” (Good Bye Sadness).  117687900

Satisfactory record.

Les Baxter- I Could Have Danced All Night

DSCN4830 (800x797)This was all of one dollar.  This would be the second Les Baxter album I have posted.  Unbeknownst to me when I bought this, this is a Pickwick album, which in general, I hate.  However, it is based on previously released material and not the imitation material Pickwick is kind of known for.MI0002749948

Copies of this record go for anywhere between $3 and $15.  The record itself is in pretty good condition.  The cover is decent enough as well.

Les’ Webpage

This album is a collection of Baxter’s songs from what I am guessing was his 50’s material with Capital Records.  Baxter, a prolific composer and arranger, is one of the three founding fathers of exotica, but his influence goes beyond the genre.  The majority of these songs on this album, I would state do not fall into the exotica realm.  They are however, arranged in a beautiful manner.  DSCN4831 (800x787)

This album was released in 1966.  It contains many good songs including the title track, “Exodus”, “I Concentrate on You”, and “April in Portugal”.  Also included is the track that started the exotica movement, “Quiet Village”. All the songs off this album are good but theses, along with the sample, are what stuck out to me.

For a sample, I went with the French standard, “La Vie En Rose”, which I feel is done wonderfully by Baxter.quote-any-good-music-must-be-an-innovation-les-baxter-2-9-0955

Satisfactory album.

 

Claudine Longet- The Look of Love

DSCN2471This was one dollar.  I like the French chicks but prefer them to sing in French. Also, I spent less than ten minutes on today’s post.Claudine-Longet-05-GQ_03May13_getty_bThis is the third Claudine Longet album I have posted on this site.  Not sure why I favor her, but here we go.  It has been hard finding French chicks in general for under $5.  I am particularly proud of the first post I did on her.  I think it was one of my more informative posts.  Besides that and the second post, there is not much more I can say about Longet personally or professionally.

Link to the First Donkey Show Post

This was Longet’s second album.  Released in 1967, it reached # 33 on the Billboard charts.  It is an easy listening mix of pop and bossa nova, heavily influenced by the Brazilian music at the time.  It also contains two Beatle compositions and one Bacharach/ David tune.  Decent album if you are into that kind of thing.DSCN2472

I went back and forth between Bacharach’s “Look of Love” which she does well and the McCartney tune “When I’m Sixty Four”.  I felt she did a decent version of that as well.  After some thought , I flipped a coin and got tails.  So here is a waify version of “When I’m Sixty Four”.  Note that this came out pretty close to the original version’s release.

maxresdefaultI was going to make a bad joke about shooting the messenger here, but decided to go ahead and give this a satisfactory rating.  I would say it is among the better of her work.

Patachou- La Belle Epoque/ Sings the Songs of Aristide Bruant

DSCN2391This was $2.00. Seemed interesting enough.  At the time, I was hard pressed to find records by French chicks.  For the most part, I still am, especially under $5.00.bruant

Aristide Bruant was a singer, songwriter, nightclub owner, and an embodiment of the Paris/ Montmartre night life of the 1900’s. Born into a respectful family with good roots in 1851, he became one of the centers of the Bohemian scene. Known for a quick wit, stinging insults, and being rude to customers (a rude Frenchman? Who would have thunk it?), his songs reflected the seedy underbelly of the Paris streets. He would die in 1924. He is probably best known today by the art work of Toulouse Lautrec, who captured him in his trademark black hat and red muffler.

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Bruant’s Wiki Page

Henriette Ragon, better known as Patachou, has a different story.  Born in Paris in 1918, she worked a variety of odd jobs until 1948, when she and her husband took over a Montmartre cabaret.  She began to sing in the bistro and as she began to  gain fame, critics called her Patachou, which was the name of the cabaret.  I do not know is she invented this or not but she used to cut the neckties off of customers who would not join in the singing. Based on her cabaret success, records, acting gigs, and awards would follow.  She died this year at the ripe old age of 96.24956176

The songs on this album are ok. I would probably like them better if I knew the words. Very Moulin Rouge-esque, they reflect the gritty subject matter such as thieves, pimps, whores, and underdogs of the streets. This style of realistic song is known as Chanson realiste.  Bruant is generally credited as the father of this style.  In turn, Patachou is a fine singer with roots in Montmartre style. She does a good job with this material. Oddly enough, the Chanson realiste genre is mostly female driven. Highlights include “La Binette”, “A Grenelle”, “La Belle-soeur a Eloi”,and “Nini Peau d’chien”.

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For samples, I went with two songs. “Aux Frais de la Princesse” was a song written during Bruant’s failed campaign for public office. It is a biting commentary on government officials of the day. The official in the song wants to live like a king at the public’s expense but needs more money to do so. That is why the official will vote himself a raise of 6,000 francs. Kind of sounds familiar today. The other song is “Rue St Vincent” It is about a poor girl named Rose who was beautiful and smelled of roses. After working in the snow, she met Jules who was nice to her. They made love near the old cemetery. However, Jules was a pimp and asked Rose to go with other men. When she refused, Jules stabbed her to death. The gravediggers remarked how small and white she was. This was typical of the songs Bruant performed in the nightclubs.

Satisfactory record.

 

Claudine Longet- Colours

DSCN1050This was a $1. I dig French chicks. Seems like a good purchase.

Claudine Longet achieved fame outside of France in the good old US of A. Born in Paris, she first burst on the scene on American TV, starting first on McHale’s Navy. She also frequented the Andy Williams show among other television programs. Williams would later become her first husband, and, in a phenomenon that continues to amaze me, remained close friends after the divorce. Her breakout year came in 1966 when she sang on the season finale of Run For Your Life. This caught the eye of Herb Alpert who signed her shortly afterwards and thus began her singing career. She received further fame after singing the theme and staring in the Peter Seller’s film, The Party. She continued TV and recording netting gold records and charting singles along the way.

Here’s a fun fact: in a time in the industry before Suge Knight , Claudine killed a fella. In 1976, she shot her live-in boyfriend, champion skier Spider Sabich. Claudine claimed that the shooting was accidental using the Goodfellas defense that the gun went off in her hand accidently. Because of procedural error, the prosecution called not admit into evidence blood samples which they claim contained cocaine, nor could they use her diary which did not paint a picture of a happy relationship. Saturday Night Live would mock this in a sketch that has as much relevance today as Mad Magazine sticking it to Spiro Agnew. In the end, Claudine was sentenced to 30 days in jail for negligent homicide. After a civil suit with the family was settled out of court, Claudine married her defense attorney and left the public eye. They are still married and still very much out of the spotlight. Below is a link to an excellent story that ran in GQ that talks about the trial as well as the aftermath. Apparently, Spider was loved by the community and Claudine was ostracized after the shooting.

Excellent GQ Article

In terms of the record, it is ok. I prefer my French singers to be upbeat and to sing in French. This album does neither. The songs are all pretty much slow tempo wise. Likewise, despite French inflection in her voice, all the songs are in English. This album came out in 1968 and went as high as #155 on Billboard. The song selection is pretty good as is the music. And she does really have a lovely voice. If you like the slower type stuff, then this has what you are looking for. The second side seems to be the better one to me, with “Let it Be Me” and “Hurry on Down”. As a side note, Randy Newman wrote the last song on the album “ I Think it’s Going to Rain Today”. He also plays piano on the track.DSCN1051

As a sample, I went with Joni Mitchell’s “ Both Sides Now” which was a breakout hit that year for Judy Collins. It is not the best song on the album, but it is one of my favorite songs and it is not bad.

Meh. As I stated, I like my French singers poppy and French. The GQ article brings up a good fact that if not for the shooting, with proper development, Claudine might have been relevant for another decade or so. But regardless, I will take some Bardot or Gall any day over this.