(France Gall . . .mon dieu!)
It occurred to me today that I haven't really gotten into the "ye`-ye`" side of French pop music here at all. Ye`-Ye` was a style of female vocals that only the French could produce. Wildly popular on the continent and, to a lesser degree, in the U.K. and Canada. It more or less defied description and was the sole property of the 1960s. Unfortunately it never caught on here. A few artists tried to crack the U.S. market. Francoise Hardy, probably the name most people here recognize, recorded one album in English and various labels issued a few others sporadically - none of them sold very well. France Gall, along with Hardy, Sylvie Vartan and many others have been indelibly associated with the "ye`-ye`" style and there have been a flood of reissues by them in recent years. Something of a resurgence in popularity of a very infectious form of pop music.
France Gall is one of the most enduring artists coming out of this period. She stopped performing in 2001 although her catalogue of albums and singles is vast. This track, Poupee de cire, poupee de son from 1965 gives a pretty good idea of what she was like during the heyday of the "ye`-ye`" phase of French Pop.
