How the Beatles conquered France...

 

 

It is often said that the Beatles failed to make the same impact in France that they made in the rest of the western world, that French teenagers (and adults) were unimpressed by the Fab Four and that the band's records and live performances went unappreciated by French audiences. It has to be said though that this is nonsense....

It is true that the band's sales figures in France fell some way below those in, say, Germany or Spain, but they were far from unimpressive. Partly this was because the French record market in the early sixties was smaller than that of most countries of comparable size, for a variety of socio-economic reasons; it was also true that many French teenagers - and indeed French record buyers in general - preferred to listen to music in their native tongue (there is a reason why "Michelle" became The Beatles/ biggest seller in France, after all). Even so, The Beatles were certainly popular - very popular indeed - among French teenagers; far more so than almost any British or American outfit of the decade (only possible rivals: Elvis Presley and The Rolling Stones). Their route to success was however far more complicated than it was in, say, Sweden (where they took off so quickly that their first overseas visit as recording stars would be to the land of the midnight sun), with lots of help from local French performers helping to get them on their way...

The first Beatles' record to see release in France was, perhaps inevitably, drawn from the recordings that they had made in Germany as backing band for Tony Sheridan. With French record companies favouring four-track EPs over two-track singles well into the late sixties, this April 1962 release was not a straight reissue of Sheridan's German hit single ("My Bonnie", backed with "The Saints") but an EP entitled Mister Twist (Polydor 21914) featuring both sides of the single alongside two other tracks from the same sessions, "Why" and "Cry For A Shadow". Interestingly, the latter track did not feature Sheridan at all but was an instrumental penned by John Lennon and George Harrison and recorded by the Beatles (still with Pete Best on drums) on their own, making this the first bona fide Beatles recording released anywhere in the world, although they were not credited on the sleeve. With twist fever at its height in France in 1962, the record's title was a logical attempt to cash in on the dance craze but Sheridan's name meant nothing in France and the record flopped.

By the summer, The Beatles had signed with Parlophone in the UK and after firing Pete Best and replacing him with Ringo Starr they recorded the single that would set them on their way, "Love Me Do", coupled with "P.S. I Love You". This made the top twenty in the UK but was passed over for French release, partly because with only two songs available, there was not enough for an EP and partly because its commercial showing was not sufficiently strong to attract the French arm of EMI. One might have expected a better response to the band's second single, "Please Please Me", which shot to number one early in 1963 but either Parlophone didn't push it across the Channel or the French suits remained unimpressed - either way, no French release was forthcoming. It was however definitely not ignored...

English-born singer Petula Clark had been resident in France for several years and while her commercial stock in her homeland was fast dwindling to nothing, she had established herself as one of the biggest stars in her adopted country and in early 1963 she looked back across the Channel for material to round out her next EP. Two recent UK chart toppers caught her ear: The Shadows' instrumental smash "Dance On!" and The Beatles' "Please Please Me". Adapted into French as "Je me sens bien (auprès de toi)" and "Tu perds ton temps" respectively, they duly appeared on 10 April 1963 (Vogue EPL 8078). The first was a major hit while the latter struggled for airplay, with the popular teenage radio show Salut les copains showing a preference for her self-penned "Elle est finie (la belle histoire)" or her cover of Barbara Lynn's "Second Fiddle Girl" ("Que ton coeur soit fidèle"), although the Beatle tune was noted when the EP was listed at # 15 in the charts in La Discographie Française in May. The recording earned Petula her place in the history books: not only was "Tu perds ton temps" the first Lennon-McCartney song to be released in France, it was also the first cover version (other than budget label knockoffs) of a Beatles song released anywhere in the world (Kenny Lynch's version of "Misery", being released before The Beatles' own version, is not technically a cover). 

Back across the Channel in the UK, the band's momentum continued to build with the release of their debut LP and their next single, "From Me To You", both of which topped the charts at an impressive rate of knots. By now the band were beginning to chart in parts of Europe too, yet EMI still declined to put the band's records onto the French market. This presented further opportunities for French singers to get in on the act, and during June two different versions of "From Me To You" emerged into the marketplace. 

 

Louise Cordet, the daughter of French singer Hélène Cordet, was born in the UK to a war hero father, Marcel Boiset, and was certainly well connected: her godfather was the Duke of Edinburgh. Her mother had been a regular presence on UK television via the BBC series Café Continental and the young Louise inevitably drifted into singing herself. Although she landed a moderate UK hit in 1962 with "I'm Just A Baby", the French market seemed more receptive to her talents and so in the spring of 1963 she laid down some material specifically for French audiences, issued on what was her second French EP (Decca 454100). Three of the four songs were sung in French, with "L'amour tourne en rond" picking up a modicum of airplay; the fourth was an English-language cover of "From Me To You" that she had doubtless picked up while touring the UK alongside the Fab Four in May.

Although The Beatles' own version had yet to appear in France, Cordet's version was rapidly buried by the appearance of a French-language version by Claude François. Since rocketing to stardom at the start of the year with "Belles! Belles! Belles!" (adapted from The Everly Brothers' "(Girls, Girls, Girls) Made To Love", François had become the archetypal yé-yé idol, able to transform anything into a hit record and his June 1963 EP, his third, delivered four hits out of four. The big smashes were "Pauvre petite fille riche" and a cover of Jimmy Soul's "If You Want To Be Happy" ("Si tu veux être heureux"), while the other two songs drew on the rapidly rising Merseybeat sound, with Gerry and the Pacemakers' "How Do You Do It" ("Comment fais-tu?") joining the Beatles' tune (now rebaptised "Des bises de moi pour toi") on one of the biggest selling EPs of the year. It may have languished behind the record's heavy hitters, but the Lennon-McCartney tune certainly made its presence felt, charting at # 7 in the chart in Bonjour les amis and at # 12 in the more popular Salut les copains, while the Radio Andorre programme Spécial blue jeans placed it at # 22. 

 

A few weeks later, yé-yé chanteuse Sylvie Vartan issued her second album, Twiste et chante, the title track of which was a cover of "Twist And Shout". It is possible that this was lifted from version on the first Beatles album, but as with her cover of "Chains" ("Chance") earlier in the year, the sound of her recordings suggests that Ms.Vartan took inspiration instead from the earlier versions by The Isley Brothers and The Cookies respectively. It is similarly uncertain whether Lucky Blondo lifted his version of "Do You Want To Know A Secret" ("J'ai un secret à te dire") directly from The Beatles or via the hit UK cover by Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas, but as both bands were managed by Brian Epstein and produced by George Martin, the difference is largely immaterial. Although second-billed to a cover of Paul Anka's "Late last Night" ("L'autre nuit"), Blondo's version was a hit in its own right, hitting # 23 in Salut les copains and # 38 in Bonjour les amis.

By now, there was enough interest in the Lennon-McCartney songbook to cause teenagers to begin to look for the source of these hit records. Perhaps surprisingly, the first Beatles song to win significant airplay was "Twist And Shout": surprising because it was still not available in French shops other than as a UK import EP. Nevertheless, listener interest was enough to lift it into the charts in Salut les copains during September, the month that EMI finally buckled and put out the band's own first French EP release (Odéon 7 SOE 3739), featuring "From Me To You", "Ask Me Why", "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Please Please Me". Radio stations however largely ignored this in favour of import copies of the band's new UK single, "She Loves You", prompting the release of a second EP (Odéon 7 SOE 3741) adding the band's versions of "Do You Want To Know A Secret" and "A Taste Of Honey" to the  two tracks already storming the airwaves. "She Loves You" entered the chart in Salut les copains in November, on its way to #1 on the list of foreign recordings; it peaked at # 3 in Bonjour les amis. More importantly though, it also registered on the sales charts in Disco revue (#3) and Billboard (#1), giving the band their first genuine hit in France, just in time for their season at L'Olympia in Paris in January, topping the bill over Trini Lopez, Sylvia Vartan and comic chansonnier Pierre Vassiliu. 

In its wake, the cover versions exploded, with no fewer than four versions of "She Loves You" ("Elle t'aime"; recorded by Les Chats Sauvages, Nancy Holloway, Jimmy Frey and Jacky Moulière) being joined by three versions of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" ("Laisse-moi tenir ta main" by Claude François and "Je veux prendre ta main" by Frank Alamo and by Nancy Holloway) being joined by covers of every single track on the band's debut album. This trend would continue for a year or two, with each new Beatle release being rapidly reworked into French for the local market, even as the Fab Four established themselves as stars every bit as popular as the local yé-yé hordes. With glossy copious coverage in Salut les copains keeping French fans informed of the band's activities, the French love affair with The Beatles had begun and would last well into the 21st century, just as it has in the rest of the world. 

You can read more about Petula Clark, Louise Cordet, Claude François and Lucky Blondo - and much more besides - in my newly-released book. Feel free to grab a copy here: BOOK