Belle Epoque (band)

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Belle Epoque , sometimes also La Belle Epoque , was a formation around the French singer , lyricist and composer Evelyne Lenton, born on December 16, 1945, and her brother, the producer , arranger and composer Albert Weyman.

history

Evelyne Lenton began her singing career in the early 1960s in Paris , where she performed under the stage name "Evy" and from 1963 onwards she released a few single records for the French record label Barclay, some of which were sung in Italian and Spanish in addition to her mother tongue . In 1966 she moved first to Rome , three years later to London and again to Rome in 1976 when her brother confronted her with the idea of ​​playing the rock-pop classic Black Is Black by the Spanish group Los Bravos from 1966 with a contemporary arrangement in the just to reissue fully inflamed disco sound.

The single released in 1977 with the rhythmically spoken intro " We like the music, we like the disco sound, hey, black - is black " immediately became a hit parade . Almost everywhere in Europe it was able to place in the top ten, in Germany and the United Kingdom it came to number 2, in Australia it took first place a year later.

During Belle Epoque's most successful phase, Evelyne Lenton was accompanied on stage and on record covers by background singers Marcia Briscoe (* 1955, from Atlanta , Georgia , USA ) and Jusy Fortes (also Jusy Lisboa, * 1956, from the Cape Verde Islands ) .

The second single, Miss Broadway , was written by Lenton and Weyman. The rough voice of Lenton, this time without female background vocals, and the pulsating bass line , which is occasionally abruptly interrupted by a groaning male voice ( "uh-huh, I like it ..." ), make the song seem rockier than its predecessor. Rhythmically and in the instrumentation, especially through the economical but concise use of string instruments , mainly a single, unaligned viola , the arrangement shows clear parallels to the work of Sylvester Levay for the German disco formation Silver Convention .

Released on Carrere in Germany at the end of 1977 and distributed by Polydor , the song reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 , and appeared a year later on Big Tree / Atlantic Records , up to number 92 and became a club hit in the USA.

Evelyne Lenton has been working as a solo artist under her real name since 1983, but occasionally publishes new or newly mixed song material as Belle Epoque.

Discography

Albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1978 Miss Broadway /
Black Is Black (DE) 		DE40 (8 weeks)
DE 		- - - -
First published: 1976

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More albums

  • 1977: Bamalama
  • 1979: Now

Compilations

  • 1979: Belle Epoque, Collection Double Album (2 LPs)
  • 1997: Il meglio
  • 2001: Dance, Dance, Dance
  • 2006: Black Is Black
  • 2006: Belle Epoque

Singles

year Title
album 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1977 Black Is Black
Miss Broadway 		DE2 (20 weeks)
DE 		AT3 (16 weeks)
AT 		CH6 (10 weeks)
CH 		UK2
gold
gold

(14 weeks)UK 		-
Miss Broadway
Miss Broadway 		DE8 (18 weeks)
DE 		AT13 (8 weeks)
AT 		- - US92 (4 weeks)
US
1978 Bamalama
Bamalama 		DE38 (7 weeks)
DE 		- - - -

More singles

  • 1978: Let Men Be
  • 1979: Jump Down
  • 1979: Com 'On Tonight
  • 1979: Now
  • 1994: Sunshine E.

swell

  1. ^ A b Günter Ehnert (Ed.): Hit-Bilanz, Deutsche Chart Singles 1956–1980 . Taurus-Press, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-922542-24-7 , p. 26.
  2. ↑ everyhit.com, search mask: "La Belle Epoque"
  3. ↑ a b Chart sources: Singles Albums UK
  4. ↑ a b UK gold / platinum database

Web links