Ye Ye, Chanson, and French Pop
 

This thread is dedicated to Pop music from France during the 1960s and 1970s! Let's do it right this time, with no broken links and unresponsiveness. :laughing:

Anyway, I've been a fan of Yé-Yé ever since I stumbled upon an obscure compilation, and listened to it out of curiosity. I'll start off with a classic; France Gall's Laisse Tomber Les Filles, from 1964.

This doesn't have any words, but f*ck it.



This has more of a phyche vibe, but still pretty decent.



bae

^ Nice choices! I really liked that second song.

From 1967, here's an infectiously cheery banger from Laura Ulmer, the daughter of Georges Ulmer:

Originally released in 1966, Les Fauves was a song by Chantal Rousselot, aka Cléo. Here's the music video, from 1967:

Francoise Hardy and Jimmy Page teamed up for this garage-y 1964 pop song:

There's a new band called Brigitte. Very kitsch and very disco, bringing back the sexy 70's disco/pop sound. Definately worth checking especially the song "A Bouche Que Veux-Tu" and "Hier Encore".

^ Thanks for the rec! I'll give them a spin sometime.

i can't believe i didn't start this thread years ago :)

can i also suggest getting the wonderful and very informative book...Ye-Ye Girls of '60s French Pop

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...4,203,200_.jpg

very in depth sections about the major players in Ye-Ye as well as many unknowns....plus a great discography

some quick favorites :)

i just love the arrangements in this song


Chantal Goya was purrrrfection personified....she had such an amazing carrier which included working in film with French new wave master Jean-Luc Godard


Sylvia Vartan was a Bulgarian born Ye Ye singer and often so dark and depression....
"Fallen boxer is to spare
Condemned is to blindfold
Killed enemy is to bury
Injured horse is to terminate
For love, for pity
Oh, for love, for pity"


in all honesty when i hear the term Ye-Ye this song is always the first thing that comes to my head....that amazing voice....the fun pop music mixed with her obviously apathetic attitude

Those were all fantastic! Love Chantal Goya, though I mostly know her for C'est Bien Bernard, which I heard on a comp awhile back and really liked.



Anyway, I definitely need to check that book out. Thanks!

This is pretty proggy, but still has a chanson influence. (Or is it just the singing, that makes it appear this way?)
Anyway, Christiane Maria Cohade is rules.
Oh, and it's probably too recent for this thread.

That was great! Don't worry about how recent it is, you can post modern stuff if you want. Also, prog and psych influenced songs are fantastic, so feel free to post those too. :thumb:

Here's Belisama Part Two, a classic French heavy psych song! It kinda caught me off guard the first time I heard it, because it was on a comp filled with otherwise lighthearted Ye-Ye music. :laughing:

From 1967, here's Charlotte Leslie with Les Filles C'est Fait Pour Faire L'Amour, a fun, fast, and ultra mod song with some fuzz guitars here and there:

I blew my load in my first post in here, but I've been listening to everything y'all have posted. Really good shit. I'm going to find some compilations if I can.

i suggest starting with this
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...SL._SX300_.jpg

the Christiane Maria Cohade song was really good but the Charlotte Leslie is spot on for my idea of Ye-Ye :)


Monique Thulbert....kind of a "one hit wonder" and really more of a Bardot rip off....still this is a great single


Jane Birkin....'nuff said :)


some really good modern Ye-Ye ala April March


Considering it's Halloween....plus this song is just groovy as fuck

^ Great tracks, as always! That Jane Birkin song, with all of the references to sixties musicians, reminds me of that awesome Jacqueline Taieb song that seems to find it's way onto every Ye-Ye comp. :laughing:



And yeah, there are a bunch of great comps out there, like C'est Chic!, the aforementioned Swinging Mademoiselles CD, and the original and difficult to find bootleg Swinging Mademoiselle series on vinyl. I was introduced to Ye-Ye by Ultra Chicks, which is also a bootleg series, although it's much easier to track down. Nobody knows who started the series, since it's not on a label, but I'm pretty sure it was the Shaws, as they still sell original copies that they find lying around the Bomp warehouse. :laughing:

Ultra Chicks is an amazing comp....completely forgot about that one....also Girls in the Garage Vol 10 is all 60s French music

Girls in the Garage for life. :yeah:

agreed 100%....by far one of the greatest collections on earth :)

Here's San Asterisque by Dani, a fun song from 1966!

Another song by Dani, from '67!

I know Charlotte Gainsbourg's a little overplayed, but - has anybody thought thoroughly about the lyrics on "IRM" and "5:55"? It's dark stuff for French pop.

Yo Goof, I never thanked you for introducing me to Catherine Ribeiro back on the first page. Been listening to her first album a lot lately.

How did I not see this thread?!?

This is my only contribution for now; it's just a brief film scene, but it's a long-time favorite (featuring Serge Gainsbourg and a painfully gorgeous Anna Karina)

Aw, that was adorable. :love:

I like Michel Berger

Michel Polnareff.
The guy is one of the most iconic singer/songwriter of the french yé yé/pop stage.

Some of this stuff is pretty good.. How do you find it though?

This a decent starting point: Radiooooo
.. Just click on France on the map and select the 1960s option at the bottom. Of course it'll play other genres, too, but that site is a really wonderful resource! It lets you choose any country and any decade in the world. 1910, even! (and you can even choose between slower and faster tempo songs, and there's an optional "weird" option as well)

Whaat? That site is amazing. Thanks.

This radio seems pretty decent. Most of the songs are in french.

Nostalgie 60 | Écouter en ligne gratuitement

You can try this other station too :
Radio nostalgie is a french FM station specialised in songs from 60 to 2010. Lots are in french too.

Etienne Daho is probably something like Serge Gainsbourg spiritual son's and one of the most brilliant producer singer songwriter over the last 30 last yers in France. His pop is classy and dandy as hell.

You can find more informations in English here.

It's always hard to do a choice between dozens of hits, but this is my selection.



With Dani, A cover of Serge Gainsbourg song's Boomerang.




With the English pop star Saint Etienne.




With Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Yo bob, I just wanna thank you for introducing me to this song, because it's awesome and I listen to it all the time. :beer:

Oops, dead link. Here's a repost:

This song makes me cry, and I'm not even completely sure why.

The song that created Post Punk

This next song was literally banned for being too sexy:

:laughing:

Music to sacrifice yourself for someone else to:

The music that plays every time someone accepts the fact that they are incapable of being in a healthy and meaningful relationship, yet they still love the world and everyone in it: