By David Mann M.D.
CSMR Correspondent
PARKER, CO -- USA -- France Gall is one of a number of non-German singers, who having moved into the Germanic schlager realm, achieved substantial commercial and popular success there -- just like Italians, Gigliola Cinquetti, and Albano Carrisi and Romina Power.
France was born, Isabelle Geneviève Marie Anne Gall, in 1947 in Paris. In her teens, she recorded a series of popular French yé-yé songs starting at age 16.
Soon thereafter, she attained pan-European stardom in 1965, when she won the Eurovision Song Contest, representing Luxembourg, with Poupée de cire, poupée de son ("Wax Doll, Rag Doll") written by the legendary French songwriter Serge Gainsbourg.
Listening to the recording, one might very easily agree with her musical mentor and lover at the time, Claude François, that she sang a bit off key.
François, is best known to Americans for the song Comme D'habitude -- which in America was adopted by Frank Sinatra, after Paul Anka adapted the lyrics into English to become the classic My Way.
Francois subsequently split up with Gall, apparently unable to handle a singer (and mistress) whose success could transcend his own career - which it eventually did..
Despite France Gall's unique, non-traditional, little girl's voice, her '65 ESC winning song became a big hit, selling half a million records in her native country and propelling her to pan-European fame.
Young France Gall's professional relationship with her songwriter, Serge Gainsbourg brought her both fame and trouble. Gainsbourg, was known for his racy lyrics filled with sexual innuendo and double entendres.
He wrote a song entitled Les Sucettes ("The Lollipops") which the innocent teen aged France performed without realizing the obvious reference in the lyrics to unconventional sexual practices.
Later on France Gall admitted to being embarrassed and humiliated when she found out the true meaning of the song. Unfortunately this and other missteps (usually involving Gainsbourg's bizarre songs) led to a diminishing of her popularity in France.
Consequently, she turned her attention elsewhere -- to the, then growing, German pop/schlager market.
From the late 1960s to the mid 70s, France Gall was based in Germany.
There she achieved very great success in live performance and in recording. France Gall appeared on German television frequently, where she entered and frequently won various song contests.
Her success in Germany apparently helped restore her confidence, prompting her to return to France.
There, she married songwriter Michel Berger in 1976, and sang his songs exclusively from then on, which led to 24 albums and a long line of hits in France, which proceeded continuously until her retirement in 2004.
She also starred in a reasonably successful 1978 avant garde stage play, Made in France. In 2001, French television aired a well-received retrospective documentary on her career, France Gall Par France Gall.
Today she lives in Paris, where she has been involved in a variety of charitable endeavors.
Here is France Gall's 1965 Eurovision Song Contest-winning entry, Poupée de cire, poupée de son (Wax Doll, Musical Doll). It has a definite mid-60s Go-Go quality, albeit a bit off-key:
Here, from a German televised performance of the 1969 finals of the German Song Contest in Wiesbaden, Germany, France Gall performed Ein bißchen Goethe, ein bißchen Bonaparte (A bit of Goethe, a bit of Bonaparte):
Here's France Gall, from her German schlager/pop period, in 1969, singing, Ich Liebe Dich, So Wie du Bist (I love you the way you are). She seems to have held on to the waning mid-60s Go-Go sound, even though the Beatles broke up that year and Woodstock was happening that year in upstate New York:
France Gall got a little more au courant in 1971, with her Ali Baba Und Die 40 Räuber (Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves) which has a definite schlager backbeat:
You can get more on France Gall at a Facebook page maintained by her devoted fans:
https://fr-fr.facebook.com/francegall.net/
Or at the France Gall website:
http://francegall.biz/index.htm
CSMR Correspondent
PARKER, CO -- USA -- France Gall is one of a number of non-German singers, who having moved into the Germanic schlager realm, achieved substantial commercial and popular success there -- just like Italians, Gigliola Cinquetti, and Albano Carrisi and Romina Power.
 |
| France Gall |
France was born, Isabelle Geneviève Marie Anne Gall, in 1947 in Paris. In her teens, she recorded a series of popular French yé-yé songs starting at age 16.
Soon thereafter, she attained pan-European stardom in 1965, when she won the Eurovision Song Contest, representing Luxembourg, with Poupée de cire, poupée de son ("Wax Doll, Rag Doll") written by the legendary French songwriter Serge Gainsbourg.
Listening to the recording, one might very easily agree with her musical mentor and lover at the time, Claude François, that she sang a bit off key.
François, is best known to Americans for the song Comme D'habitude -- which in America was adopted by Frank Sinatra, after Paul Anka adapted the lyrics into English to become the classic My Way.
Francois subsequently split up with Gall, apparently unable to handle a singer (and mistress) whose success could transcend his own career - which it eventually did..
Despite France Gall's unique, non-traditional, little girl's voice, her '65 ESC winning song became a big hit, selling half a million records in her native country and propelling her to pan-European fame.
Young France Gall's professional relationship with her songwriter, Serge Gainsbourg brought her both fame and trouble. Gainsbourg, was known for his racy lyrics filled with sexual innuendo and double entendres.
He wrote a song entitled Les Sucettes ("The Lollipops") which the innocent teen aged France performed without realizing the obvious reference in the lyrics to unconventional sexual practices.
Later on France Gall admitted to being embarrassed and humiliated when she found out the true meaning of the song. Unfortunately this and other missteps (usually involving Gainsbourg's bizarre songs) led to a diminishing of her popularity in France.
 |
| France Gall in Go-Go mode |
Consequently, she turned her attention elsewhere -- to the, then growing, German pop/schlager market.
From the late 1960s to the mid 70s, France Gall was based in Germany.
There she achieved very great success in live performance and in recording. France Gall appeared on German television frequently, where she entered and frequently won various song contests.
Her success in Germany apparently helped restore her confidence, prompting her to return to France.
There, she married songwriter Michel Berger in 1976, and sang his songs exclusively from then on, which led to 24 albums and a long line of hits in France, which proceeded continuously until her retirement in 2004.
She also starred in a reasonably successful 1978 avant garde stage play, Made in France. In 2001, French television aired a well-received retrospective documentary on her career, France Gall Par France Gall.
Today she lives in Paris, where she has been involved in a variety of charitable endeavors.
Here is France Gall's 1965 Eurovision Song Contest-winning entry, Poupée de cire, poupée de son (Wax Doll, Musical Doll). It has a definite mid-60s Go-Go quality, albeit a bit off-key:
Here, from a German televised performance of the 1969 finals of the German Song Contest in Wiesbaden, Germany, France Gall performed Ein bißchen Goethe, ein bißchen Bonaparte (A bit of Goethe, a bit of Bonaparte):
Here's France Gall, from her German schlager/pop period, in 1969, singing, Ich Liebe Dich, So Wie du Bist (I love you the way you are). She seems to have held on to the waning mid-60s Go-Go sound, even though the Beatles broke up that year and Woodstock was happening that year in upstate New York:
France Gall got a little more au courant in 1971, with her Ali Baba Und Die 40 Räuber (Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves) which has a definite schlager backbeat:
You can get more on France Gall at a Facebook page maintained by her devoted fans:
https://fr-fr.facebook.com/francegall.net/
Or at the France Gall website:
http://francegall.biz/index.htm