What was the first number one record in France?

Every UK chart fan knows that the first number one hit was Al Martino's "Here In My Heart", which was on top in November 1952 when the New Musical Express published the first UK pop chart. Many Americans probably know that the first US number one was "I'll Never Smile Again" by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra, with vocals by none other than Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers, sitting at the top of the first ever Billboard list of best-selling records in July 1940.

Actually, neither of the above facts are entirely true - at least, they are only true when it comes to record sales. Prior to that, hits were registered on the basis of sheet music sales, and so the first UK number one apparently dates to October 1936 and the first American one goes back to 1913 or 1914! But of course, they were not number one records... 

But what about France?

Strange as it may seem, despite a thriving record (and sheet music) market before the war, France was slow to develop a hit parade of its own. True - record sales during the forties and fifties were siginficantly lower than in many other countries, but the country's chanson and musical hall traditions were hugely popular during this period. Indeed, Tino Rossi's eternal Yuletide smash "Petit Papa Noël" was first released in 1946 and remains the biggest selling French single of all time, while in Édith Piaf, the country produced one of the most popular singers in the world. Nevertheless, the forties came and went without any sort of hit parade appearing, and it would be the middle of the next decade before the first chart appeared in the pages of the newspaper Le Figaro. 

Inevitably, it was a sheet music chart (even though record charts were now appearing elsewhere, sheet music remained a vital cog in the music industry at a time when more homes had pianos than gramophones). This chart appeared in September 1955 and the first number one was "Les lavandières du Portugal", a French song composed by André Popp (who would compose any number of hit songs over the years) with lyrics by Roger Lucchesi. (The song would go on to become an American hit for Joe "Fingers" Carr in 1956 as "The Portuguese Washerwoman".) But who was the singer?

That is, of course, the problem with sheet music charts - they are not tied to a particular recording. While the first singer to record and release it was Jacqueline François (who sang it in the film Mademoiselle de Paris, released in June 1955), the same year saw versions by Yvette Giraud, Renée Lebas, Luis Mariano and Jacques Hélian's orchestra (with vocal), not to mention an easy listening version by Franck Pourcel , an accordion version by André Verchuren and a piano version by Francine Adam. Many, many more would follow during 1956. François, Giraud and Mariano were all big stars at the time, and it is likely that each version sold well. So which performer then, had the first number one record?

The answer came a month later, when Music Hall magazine published the first French hit parade based on record sales. it was only a top ten, but happily, the number one on that first chart was also "Les lavandières du Portugal", and the magazine stated, very clearly, that the performer was Jacqueline François, making her the first performer to have a number one hit in France.

By 1955, shellac 78 r.p.m. singles were beginning to decline in favour of new "unbreakable" 45s, so Jacqueline's record was available on the smaller format, but this being France, where EPs were far more popular than the singles favoured elsewhere in the world, this meant a four-track "super 45", complete with colour photograph of the singer on the sleeve.

Two of the other three songs on Jacqueline's EP were also proving popular with record buyers. The second track, "Un jour tu verras" was also in the sheet music chart, while a version by Mouloudji was in the top ten on the record chart at # 8. There were several other versions on the market, notably one by Anny Gould and another by Michèle Arnaud (who would represent Luzembourg at the first Eurovision Song Contest and who would later go on to co-produce Pink Floyd's Live At Pompeii film - true!) although none sold as well as those by Mouloudji or François. "Lola (la légende du pays aux oiseaux)" was a French version of George Shearing's jazz favourite "Lullaby Of Birdland", and was also in the sheet music chart, thanks in large part to the version by Les Blue Stars, fronted by an expatriate American, Blossom Dearie. Closing out the EP was "À t'regarder", a composition by two rising stars of la chanson française , Jean Constantin and Charles Aznavour.

Jacqueline François was in some ways the best of the French female singers to emerge in the years after the war - certainly the most technically gifted, although she perhaps lacked the emotional intensity of Édith Piaf or the cerebral appeal of Juliette Gréco. She would remain a big star in France for the rest of the fifties - her follow-up release generated big hits both with "Samba fantastique" (adapted from Jorge Goulart's film theme "Samba fantastico") and the unusual "Chiens perdus sans collier" (also a film theme, this time penned by Paul Misraki and Eddy Marnay) while late 1956 brought a big-selling cover of Doris Day's "Whatever Will Be, Will Be" ("Que sera sera"), although as the decade progressed she lost ground to vibrant newcomers like Dalida. As with many of her peers, she would struggle to maintain her popularity as the yé-yé revolution took place during the sixties and she would more or less cease recording in 1964, her 27th and final EP featuring a nice reading of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Garota de Ipanema" ("La fille d'Ipanema", obviously modelled on the global hit version by Stan Getz, João Gilberto and Astrud Gilberto, "The Girl From Ipaenma"). She made a tenative return at the end of the sixties and made occasional recordings in the seventies and eighties, continuing to perform for many years before retiring. She died in 2009 in Courbevoie and is buried in Neuilly-sur-Seine.

To read more about Jacqueline François's career, and those of the other singers mentioned in this post, please check out my book "French Pop: From Music Hall To Yé-Yé" when it comes out at the end of February. You can even pre-order a copy here: BOOK