Here is a French record I got for $3. I was not sure who this Yves Montand cat was but he looked pretty dapper. We are doing international records this week.
Montand was born in Monsummano Teme, Italy in 1921 with a rather Italian name (Ivo Livi). His family, however, left for France two years later, due to the rise in Fascism and his father’s Communist beliefs which would have for sure conflicted with said rise. He grew up in Marseille and became a music hall singer. He was discovered by Edith Piaf in 1944 who put him in his act. He went on to have a good career as a crooner as well as a star on film and stage. He died of a heart attack in 1991. He was on the set finishing up the last shot on the last day of filming of a story of a man who died of a heart attack. He was 70.
So I listened to this record and selected samples before researching the subject thoroughly. Among other things, he was married to French actress Simone Signoret . Signoret’s daughter (Montand’s step daughter), the French actress Catherine Allegret wrote her autobiography in 2004 that she had been sexually abused by Montand since the age of 5, but the two reconciled later in life. So now, in the current environment , which I assume is still a thing in early 2019, I am less jazzed to present this record.
But we are here and I am going to take the moral low ground and proceed with the record. Which is from the Phillips Connoisseur Collection. It includes some of the bigger numbers of Montand’s career. Not as good or as sharp as Brel, but still pretty good. Comes complete with lyrics in French and English as well as a quick bio which I did not bother to read. I don’t know. I lost interest in going much further with this post.
For a sample, I went with “Rengaine Ta Rengaine” (Pocket Your Old Tune). The song is from 1961. I am not sure when this record came out. Sometime in the 1970’s I am guessing. I also really liked “La Bicyclette” off this album but decided to just post it as a video below:
This record is alright but I feel creepy now about posting it although I am doing nothing to stop this post. So meh.