Claude François

Claude François (1976)

Claude François (born February 1, 1939 in Ismaïlia , Egypt , † March 11, 1978 in Paris ), often also called Cloclo in France , was a French musician, composer , chansonnier and music producer . In the 1960s and 1970s he was one of the most popular artists in his country.

Life

Claude François (1965)

Claude François was born in Egypt, where his French-born father Aimé worked for the French administration of the Suez Canal ; his mother Lucia, also called Chouffa , came from Calabria . He learned various instruments (including drums and violin) in Egypt, and the influence of the local music scene influenced many of his later compositions.

When his family moved to the Côte d'Azur in 1956 after the nationalization of the Suez Canal , he quickly found work as a drummer in various jazz ensembles and music clubs in the area, for example in Monaco or at the jazz festivals in Juan-les- Pins .

At the end of 1960 François moved to Paris, where he had his first major success as a singer in 1962 with Belles, Belles, Belles (his French-language adaptation of Made to Love by the Everly Brothers ), which was soon followed by others with his own compositions. In 1963 he appeared for the first time in the Paris "Olympia" ; the recording was released as an album the following year. In 1966 he established the group Les Clodettes consisting of four dancers for his stage appearances , which from then on (with later changing names) belonged to his trademarks.

In early 1967, after a failed relationship with the singer France Gall, he first composed the song For You in English , which then resulted in Comme d'habitude with Jacques Revaux and Gilles Thibault , one of his most successful chansons, which was initially sung by Hervé Vilard , the from the end of 1967 he also led the program himself. With new English lyrics by Paul Anka , who got to know the piece through a television appearance by François, the song became a global hit as My Way in 1969 by Frank Sinatra , later also interpreted by Elvis Presley and Sid Vicious , among others .

In 1967 François founded his own record company Flèche (German: Pfeil), on which he released his album Comme d'habitude and for which he won numerous other chansonniers in addition to his own records until the label was sold in 1977, including Patrick Topaloff and Alain Chamfort . By 1967 he had released his albums at Philips .

In May 1970, François suffered serious facial injuries in a car accident when a tire in his car burst while driving on the motorway near Orange .

In the 1970s, François remained one of the most popular singers in France with his own songs and, above all, with a large number of pieces covered from the English and American markets. His successes in these years include u. a. La plus belle chose du monde (his adaptation of the Bee Gees hit Massachusetts ). Conversely, François' chanson Parce que je t'aime, mon enfant (1971) was translated into English by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter and covered in 1975 as My Boy by Elvis Presley. François' album Le téléphone pleure (1974) became the greatest commercial success of his career and sold more than two million copies within a few weeks of its release. In total, François left more than 500 chansons.

Statue on his grave

On March 11, 1978, a Saturday, Claude François died of an electric shock in his Paris apartment while trying to fix a defective lamp in his bathroom from the bathtub. On the same afternoon he should have presented his already recorded latest single Alexandrie, Alexandra at the recording of the television show Rendez-vous du Dimanche ("Meetings on Sunday") by Michel Drucker , which was then released posthumously the following week. François was buried in the village of Dannemois in the Essonne department , where he had owned a country house.

In March 2000 the square in front of his last Parisian apartment (46, Boulevard Exelmans) in the 16th arrondissement was renamed Place Claude François in his honor . In 2005, a street was named after him in his hometown Ismaïlia in Egypt. In 2012, Florent-Emilio Siri filmed François' life under the title My Way - A Life for Chanson with Jérémie Renier in the leading role.

family

On November 5, 1960, François married the dancer Janet Woolcoot, whom he had met in Monaco. The couple separated again in 1962 after Woolcoot began a relationship with Gilbert Bécaud . The marriage ended in divorce in March 1967. In 1967 he met Isabelle Forêt; the relationship resulted in the children Claude Junior (called Coco ; * July 8, 1968) and Marc (* November 15, 1969). The couple broke up in 1972. 1972-1976 he was in a relationship with the Finn Sofia Kiukkonen. In February 2018, it was announced that Claude François had a daughter. She grew up with adoptive parents in Flanders.

Discography (selection)

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		FR	BE W	CH
1995	D'Alexandrie à Alexandra	FR- × 2 Double gold FR	BE W5 (17 weeks) BE W	-
1998	Les concerts inédits de Musicorama	FR26 (2 weeks) FR	-	-
	Le meilleur de	FR- gold FR	BE W13 (6 weeks) BE W	-
	Danse ma vie	-	BE W31 (3 weeks) BE W	-
2001	Ses plus grands succès	FR144 platinum (2 weeks)FR	BE W7 (33 weeks) BE W	CH47 (5 weeks) CH	Chart entry in FR only in 2012
2007	Les 100 plus belles chansons	-	BE W71 (4 weeks) BE W	-
	Best of	FR36 (26 weeks) FR	-	-
2008	30 ans - Édition anniversaire	FR10 (19 weeks) FR	BE W6 (27 weeks) BE W	CH48 (6 weeks) CH	Chart entry in FR only in 2011
	Sur scène	-	BE W31 (5 weeks) BE W	-
2012	100% concert	FR116 (2 weeks) FR	BE W26 (13 weeks) BE W	-
	Les 50 plus belles chansons	FR90 (4 weeks) FR	BE W40 (9 weeks) BE W	-
	Generation Cloclo	FR9 (10 weeks) FR	-	-
2015	Cette année là - Best Of 3CD	-	BE W30 (35 weeks) BE W	-
2016	Hit Parade - Les Best Of 4CD	-	BE W31 (25 weeks) BE W	-	with Sacha Distel , Dalida & Mike Brant
2018	For Ever	FR42 (9 weeks) FR	BE W28 (30 weeks) BE W	-

More albums

• Dis-lui (Fontana, published 1963)
• Si j'avais un marteau (Philips, 1963, FR:gold)
• Claude François à l'Olympia (Philips, 1964)
• Les choses de la maison (Philips, 1965)
• Le jouet extraordinaire (1965)
• Même si tu revenais (Philips, 1965)
• J'attendrai (Philips, 1966)
• Comme d'habitude (Flèche, 1967, FR:gold)
• Avec la tête, avec le coeur (Flèche, 1968)
• Un monde de musique (Flèche, 1969)
• Menteur ou cruel (Flèche, 1969)
• Le monde extraordinaire de Claude François (Flèche, 1970)
• Si douce à mon souvenir (Flèche, 1970)
• C'est la même chanson (Flèche, 1971)
• Il fait beau, il fait bon (Flèche, 1971)
• Y'a le printemps qui chante (Flèche, 1972)
• Le lundi au soleil (Flèche, 1972)
• Je viens diner ce soir (Flèche, 1973)
• Chanson populaire (Flèche, 1973, FR:gold)
• Claude François sur Scène (Flèche, 1974)
• Le téléphone pleure (Flèche, 1974)
• Toi et moi contre le monde entier (Flèche, 1975)
• Claude François sur Scène - Éte 1975 (Flèche, 1975)
• Pourquoi pleurer sur un succes d'été (Flèche, 1975)
• Pour les jeunes de 8 à 88 ans (Flèche, 1976)
• Le vagabond (Flèche, 1976)
• Je vais à Rio (Flèche, 1977)
• Magnolias for ever (Flèche, 1977, FR:× 2Double gold )
• Souvenir 1978: Claude François en public (Flèche / Carrere, 1978)

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		FR	BE W
1972	Belinda Le lundi au soleil	FR170 (1 week) FR	-	Chart entry in FR only in 2012
1977	Alexandrie Alexandra Magnolias For Ever	FR90 (6 weeks) FR	-	Chart entry in FR only in 2012
	Magnolias For Ever Magnolias For Ever	FR77 (4 weeks) FR	-	Chart entry in FR only in 2012
1987	Comme d'habitude Comme d'habitude	FR50 (5 weeks) FR	-
1990	Même si tu revenais (Remix 90's)	FR5 (16 weeks) FR	-
	Megamix	FR2 silver (15 weeks)FR	-
	J'attendrai (Remix 90's)	FR19 (8 weeks) FR	-
1998	Alexandrie Alexandra (Technomix)	FR45 (7 weeks) FR	BE W37 (2 weeks) BE W
	Je vais à Rio	FR100 (1 week) FR	-
2000	Cette année-là	FR79 (6 weeks) FR	-

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

Awards for music sales

Golden record  France 1973: for the single Chanson Populaire 1975: for the album Le Mal Aimé / Le Téléphone Pleure 1978: for the album Marche Tout Droit 1979: for the album Belles, Belles, Belles 1979: for the album Grands Succès Vol. 2 1979: for the album Super Hits: J'attendrai 1990: for the album Remix 90 2007: Podium for the video album Et Claude Francois Crea

2 × gold record  France 1995: for the album Claude François 1995: for the album Souvenir Vol. 1 Platinum record  France 1990: for the album Les Plus Grands Succès De ... 1998: for the album Master Série - Vol. 1

2 × platinum record  France 2001: for the album 10 Ans Déjà 2012: for the video album Generation Cloclo

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	silver	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
France (SNEP)	silver1	20 × gold20th	7 × platinum7th	4,040,000	infodisc.fr snepmusique.com
All in all	silver1	20 × gold20th	7 × platinum7th

literature

• Fabien Lecoeuvre: Claude François. Je soussigné. Paris: Albin Michel, 2007. ISBN 978-2226-18060-5 .

Web links

Commons : Claude François  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

1. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: FR BEW CH

• CluAds About Art (INA)

• Claude François in the Internet Movie Database (English)