Francoise Hardy...any memories?

Subject: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 05:40 PM

In the mid 1960s I was in Paris on the banks of the Seinne when I saw a beautiful young lady being filmed. I guess I was a little forward in those days and actually ended up getting a kiss on the cheek!
I still love that woman to this day...my favourite song of hers being "Voila" which can be viewed on 'Youtube'
Click here for Francoise singing "Voila"
ENJOY!
Anyone else with similar memories of celebs?

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 05:42 PM

Tout les garcons et les fille de mon age.

G

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: GUEST,Monique
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 06:01 PM

And don't forget Mon amie la rose

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 06:55 PM

I was in love with Françoise Hardy. She had long hair; she was French; she had a seductive; sexy voice; sang songs in English with a French accent; she was a beautiful; she was French and …….. she was French. What more do I need to say?


I have L.P.s of her songs in both French and English. She had about 6 words of dialogue in the film "Grand Prix". Even now I will sit through the film waiting for her bit. I saw a picture of her in the paper about a year ago, and she's still quite a looker.

G.S., you got a kiss on the cheek? I am soooooo jealous.

DC

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: folk_radio_uk
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 07:02 PM

Wow, no wonder you haven't forgotten....

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: bobad
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 07:05 PM

Françoise: Then   Now

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 04:16 AM

She looked great, but it's a pity that she had no musical talent!

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 05:35 AM

Nice Tunesmith, anybody else's dreams and happy memories you want to trample on?

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 06:33 AM

Guest Tunesmith.....I guess you must have made a lot more money than she did for her singing then!

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: GUEST,Robert (pronounced in a suitably Gallic way)
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 06:40 AM

Tous les garcons et les filles de mon age - they're all going about

les mains dans les mains

but

je vais seule.

I'm sure there'll be a site with her lyrics somewhere - I'm scratching at the limits of memory here!

All Over the World was a minor hit in English for her.   She had a song which she performed in English as "If We Are Only Friends" and in French as "Ton Meilleur Ami".

There was a song she did, "La Maison Ou J'ai Grandi". I don't know whether that was a song she wrote to someone else's tune, but the tune also turned up on a song called "Tar and Cement" (going back to look at an old haunt and finding that it's 'nothing but acres of tar and cement').

I don't know that her sound was unmusical. Naive, certainly. Shirley Collins and Nico had that same naive sound, but Francoise Hardy had a talent for writing songs - simple enough, teen love and angst, but I still find them haunting in retrospect. I think I'll go and see if I can dig some out . . .

Robert (pronounced in a suitable Gallic way)

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 07:21 AM

What bothers me is that there are so many more worthy, and interesting, French pop/rock musicians than Francoise, but we're not waxing lyrical about them. Of course, the British radio/tv stations have a lot to answer for because there are many, many great French artists who never get any air-time in Britain.

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 07:29 AM

I clicked on Bobad's "Now" link worried that I was going to come face to face with some god-what-age-does-to-you horror story. More fool me. Still gorgeous after all these years -

What's she doing these days?

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 07:29 AM

I assume the French radio stations play all the worthwhile UK artistes then?

Giok ¦¬]

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 07:34 AM

John'Giok'MacKenzie: The answer is Yes! - they do!

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 07:38 AM

Good news ¦¬]

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: Marje
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 07:46 AM

I think she appealed to the British more than she did to many of the French - that naivity didn't necessarily go down as well in France as it did over here. Her looks and style were exactly right for the British pop market at the time, and she had the extra allure of being French.

Our French teacher at the time was keen on singing - we were allowed to listen to her records in class, and learned to sing "Tous les garcons.." I can probably still sing most of it, even though I can't now remember more than three things on a shopping list.

"Le premier bonheur du jour" was another of hers, wasn't it? I know most of that as well.

I found her singing refreshing because she sang so sweetly and naturally. It was so different from pop singers like Shirley Bassey, Lulu, etc, and some American singers, who seemed to shout all the time. I hadn't discovered the gentler, folksy style of singing at that point but Francoise Hardy made me reconsider what a female singer could sound like. Marianne Faithfull tried to sing in a similar way, but she was too breathy and little-girly for my taste.

Marje

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 07:53 AM

You should hear her now!!! LOL

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 07:59 AM

If her singing was naive, well it was a naive era, and we were hardly world-savvy ourselves. I smooched to her voice, I sang along. She was one of the many excellent French singers of my teenage years, and one of the better looking ones. I certainly had a crush on her - till Mireille Mathieu stole me from her. Great looking then, great looking now, I agree with Bonnie. I wonder if she has forgiven me for dumping her for Mireille...

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 08:22 AM

Ah Mireille now we're talking :)
G

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 09:36 AM

Mireille! I love her version of Les Bicycles Of Belsize. It sends shivers down my spine but, strangely, it never pops up on "Best of.." albums.

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: David C. Carter
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 09:46 AM

She lives with the French singer Jacques Dutronc in Corsica.
He played the role of Van Gogh in a movie about the artist.
They both come into Paris from time to time,to promote whatever they are doing.
As for Mireille,nobody in their right mind likes her.
She massacred Brell's Amsterdam one time on TV.She really is not a good example of what the French can do!
Brell was from Belgium,Now there's a guy to listen to.

D

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: sapper82
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 10:35 AM

This harkens back to a more innocent age! I liked, and still like, her voice and style.

There's a lot of clips of her on Youtube! Well worth doing a search on her.

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: Amos
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 10:37 AM

I loved her songs when I was 17. Tunesmith, the notion she had no musical talent is a canard -- you object to her chosen kind of music, not her talent. She had a lovely voice.

Ton meilleur ami
Quand je lui demnde pourquoi
Depuis des jours et nuits
K'a pas des nouvelles de toi
Il me dit qu'i; m'aime....


GS, it was in Paris that I first heard her music, about the same time. I am sooo jealous.



A

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 10:46 AM

I guess I am sort of jealous of my memory now...wish I could go back and do it again......BUT MORESO!

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 10:47 AM

Anyway..don't get too excited..it was a kiss on the cheek which I didn't wash for a good two weeks......

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: Dave Higham
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 11:20 AM

She's certainly still around, and looking pretty good at 63.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IgYLc8yRfg
In 1981, she married her long-time companion Jacques Dutronc, with whom she had already had a son, (Thomas Dutronc) in 1973. C'est beau, n'est-ce pas?
Thomas is doing OK too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx6Rgnyk4os

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's unplugged Apprentice
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 11:33 AM

"As for Mireille,nobody in their right mind likes her"

you must be REALLY popular at parties with that attitude.


I do like some of Mireille Mathieu's songs and I like her voice


Charlotte (is not in her right mind..but so what..I like me)

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: David C. Carter
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 12:49 PM

I don't go to parties where they play her music.

I was talking about my French friends anyway.

Don't take it too seriously.

Cheers
David

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: Leadbelly
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 01:11 PM

In 1965 she has had a smash hit in Germany with her song "Frag den Abendwind". Don't know whether this was the german version of a french original. Nice song, but a little bit too slow/ melancholic compared to other international songs in 1965.

But she was and possibly is a great artist.

Manfred

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: Amos
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 02:32 PM

The girl we used to love, all over the world.

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: GUEST,Monique
Date: 01 Mar 08 - 03:19 PM

"La maison où j'ai grandi" was first an Italian song (Il ragazzo della via Gluck) written by Luciano Beretta, Adriano Celentano and Michele Del Prete.
I never heard a French version of "Frag' den Abendwind".

Here are the lyrics to "L'amitié", a very beautiful one:

Beaucoup de mes amis sont venus des nuages
Avec soleil et pluie comme simples bagages
Ils ont fait la saison des amitiés sincères
La plus belle saison des quatre de la terre

Ils ont cette douceur des plus beaux paysages
Et la fidélité des oiseaux de passage
Dans leurs cœurs est gravée une infinie tendresse
Mais parfois dans leurs yeux se glisse la tristesse
Alors, ils viennent se chauffer chez moi
Et toi aussi tu viendras

Tu pourras repartir au fin fond des nuages
Et de nouveau sourire à bien d'autres visages
Donner autour de toi un peu de ta tendresse
Lorsqu'un autre voudra te cacher sa tristesse

Comme l'on ne sait pas ce que la vie nous donne
Il se peut qu'à mon tour je ne sois plus personne
S'il me reste un ami qui vraiment me comprenne
J'oublierai à la fois mes larmes et mes peines
Alors, peut-être je viendrai chez toi
Chauffer mon cœur à ton bois

that you can listen to here L'amitié


Giok, the French radio stations are required to play 40% of French songs and I can tell you that the 60% left are English and US songs. Being worthwhile whether French or foreign is quite another story!

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: Colin Randall
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 05:36 AM

I interviewed Francoise in Paris for the Telegraph - the link is http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2005/01/13/bmfranc13.xml&sSheet=/arts/2005/01/13/ixtop.html -
and not only found her to be in great form despite her own claims to be falling apart but, like Bonnie Shaljean (if I interpret her posting correctly), loved her new stuff. That was back in 2005 (and was NOT my headline, I am glad to say) but I've referred to her again at different times on my blogs, at the DT before they booted me out and subsequently at my own site Salut! and cannot help the thought that she divides people as sharply as Rachel Unthank

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 06:41 AM

Colin, that is one fine article - well above the usual star-interview genre in depth and substance. Thanks for posting.

http://www.salutlive.com/ is in my bookmarks.

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: ard mhacha
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 06:41 AM

Her father Oliver was a famous comedian, good singer? bloody favouritism.

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 06:43 AM

You mean he didn't get to kiss Nelson ?

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: ard mhacha
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 06:49 AM

I think he kissed Laurel.

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 07:50 AM

Lovely writing, well done for the interview Colin.

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: GUEST,Sunday Kind of Woman
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 02:30 PM

She left Paris to get 'Far from the madding crowd'

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 02:47 PM

Ah, another LP languishing in the battered old case will now get pulled out and listened to again!
Nobody mentioned Richard Anthony yet? (pronounced in a suitably Gallic way of course!)I have an EP of his, one of those without a middle so you have to put a plastic thingummyjig in to make it play!

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: Colin Randall
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 03:46 PM

....all of which reminds me, since we are straying from Francoise Hardy to all singing things French, that if you looked hard enough at Salut! Live - and found yourself at this link you would come across one of the three parts I devoted to Robb Johnson's surprising eulogy to Johnny Hallyday.
Robb is a great electronic penfriend and has subsequently owned up to developing qualms about M Hallyday's pro-Sarko, pro avoiding French taxation ways.

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: Anglo
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 09:42 PM

As you say, Colin, we seem to be straying. And since someone just brought up Richard Anthony, one of my favorite songs was his reworking of Hedy West's "500 Miles," "J'entends siffler le train."

Hedy, I think, was my all-time favorite American woman folksinger. I last saw her perform in New York a couple of years ago, when she was persuaded out of retirement, not too long before she died. Her song was a plaintive little thing, just a couple of verses in the original, and superb in its simplicity, but I really liked RA's version.

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 05:30 AM

No doubt there are many "worthier" French acts that we could be discussing, but I'd rather listen to Francoise H than, ooh, let's say the majority of French music I've ever heard. I just finished reading a Nick Drake biography and there were some interesting quotations from Hardy on how much she loved his music, and how she was contemplating doing a few covers of his at the time (late 60s) but they didn't really work.

A propos de musique francaise, I got a GREAT compilation CD recently that I've been playing to death, called "La Belle Epoque â€" EMI's French Girls 1965â€"1968". It's all good stuff â€" quirky, often very funky, stylishly arranged and VERY 60s in an Austin Powers kind of way. There's a group on there called Les Roche Martin, who sound like a cross between the Swingle Singers and Os Mutantes - fantastic.

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 12:05 PM

Wasn't she and Nick Drake briefly an 'item' at some stage? I seem to remember reading that somewhere.

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: Amos
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 12:39 PM

In my small and narrow mind there are three great names in French vocal music. Edith Piaf, Georges Brassens, and Francois Hardy.


I am sure I am missing a lot, though.


A

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 01:13 PM

What about Charles Asnavoice?
Johnny Halliday..........of course.

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: Leadbelly
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 02:16 PM

Amos, and what...hmm,hmmm...about Carla Bruni??

Enough, let's go back to Francoise...

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: GUEST,Monique
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 06:57 PM

And Véronique Sanson... here's an old one (1972) Besoin de personne. She's been one of "les Roche Martin" and Stephen Stills' wife

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 03 Mar 21 - 07:49 AM

Falling for Francoise
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.

"It was on a language-learning trip to Paris that John Andrew first heard the music of Francoise Hardy and fell for the sexy but shy singer. He was not alone - she was the dreamgirl of many an English schoolboy in the early 1960s.

In 'Falling for Francoise', he revisits Paris and the streets in which he first lost his heart and he talks to others who've suffered the same fate - the Hardy fan website curator, Yorkshireman Warren Gilbert; musician Ben Christophers, who's written songs for the mature Francoise; journalist Laura Barton, who's besotted with the whole French 60s 'ye ye' scene... and in a real coup, John gets to meet the singer herself, falling for Francoise all over again!

Producer: Alan Hall
A Falling Tree Production for BBC Radio 4

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0118bgw

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 03 Mar 21 - 08:11 AM

Interesting that this old post should rear its head again after all these years. I recorded one of her songs about ten years ago.....https://youtu.be/VaK35BLeu9Q

Subject: RE: Francoise Hardy...any memories?
From: JHW
Date: 05 Mar 21 - 05:20 AM

Sure, 'the dreamgirl of many an English schoolboy in the early 1960s'.
Have a Golden Hour album and have sung 'All over the world' at a FC 60s night. Not a straight translation of Dans le monde entier. Favourite though was 'Tous les garcons et les filles de mon age se promenent dans les rues deux par deux'. Can still sing it in my head with probably the wrong words. France another place I might have but never lived.