Dick Rivers

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Dick Rivers (1966)

Dick Rivers , actually Hervé Forneri (born April 24, 1945 in Nice , † April 24, 2019 in Paris ), was a French singer and actor . Together with Johnny Hallyday and Eddy Mitchell , he was one of the first performers in the early 1960s to make French-language rock 'n' roll popular in their home country.

Similar to Mitchell, he began his career as the front man of a band that was successful in France ( Les Chats Sauvages ), but from which he separated early to pursue a solo career. And like Mitchell and Hallyday, his career continued well into his old age.

Career

The son of a butcher was enthusiastic about blues and rock 'n' roll at an early age . Together with other young men, he founded the band Les Chats Sauvages in 1960, which released their first single on Pathé-Marconi in May 1961 and in the autumn of that year had a success with Twist à Saint-Tropez , which became both her and Forneri's trademark. During this time, the singer gave himself the stage name Dick Rivers after the role name Elvis Presley had in the film Loving you -  phonetically at least very similar (Deke instead of Dick). In September 1962 he left the band and brought out his first solo LP (Je suis bien) at the end of the year . During this time he also had his first hit parade as a soloist with the song Baby John , even though it did not make it to the top position. In 1964 he appeared together with the Beach Boys at the Paris Olympia , in 1965 he recorded one of his best-selling singles ( Va t'en, va t'en , the French-language version of the first moody blues hit Go Now ), which hit the charts the popular radio show Salut les copains on Europe 1 took the top position. Privately, Dick Rivers fathered a son that same year.

Dick Rivers (2011)

Until the mid-1960s, Rivers' repertoire, both in concerts and on records, consisted mainly of French translations of hits by American interpreters such as Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins , Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison , but it increasingly tended towards country , folk and blues ( Johnny Cash , Bob Dylan , Willie Nelson ); with the LP Mr. Pitiful (1966) he also turned to soul . In 1971 he recorded an LP with the programmatic title Dick 'n' Roll , supported by the band Labyrinthe . Their success at the box office of record stores led to another record of songs in the genre the following year, titled The Rock Machine . In the following decades, Rivers stylistically developed into a versatile crooner with well-selling chansons such as Nice Baie des Anges (a homage to his hometown from 1984) or N'en rajoute pas mignonne (1986), but never denied his musical origins, as for example showed his 1991 tribute album to Buddy Holly ( Holly Days In Austin ).

During his more than half a century career, Dick Rivers has released a total of over 30 LPs and an even larger number of singles and EPs and has worked with other well-known musicians time and again, for example with Manu Dibango in the 1960s . These included, among others, cock-robin frontman Peter Kingsbery and Chris Spedding , with whom he had performed several times in 1995 at the Bobino , which is recorded on the LP Authendick . He himself was a guest at the Weepers Circus LP Le grand bazar in 2013 , and Julien Doré sang the song Africa (Voodoo Master) in a duet with Rivers, the “rocker with the profile of a knife blade” , in the early 1980s Years a hit by Rose Laurens , on the 2018 CD Vous & moi . Also in 2018 he was in many French cities on a oldie - revival tour (- tournée La of idoles Âge tendre) to hear.

Dick Rivers died of complications from cancer on the morning of his 74th birthday.

As an actor

1987 Dick Rivers had already made an appearance in the Canal + - TV Series Objectif Nul had. In 1999 he got his first role in a movie ( La Candide Madame Duff , released in 2000), followed by another role in 2003 in Le Furet , both directed by Jean-Pierre Mocky . During this time he could also be heard as a French voice actor in some films , such as Shir Khan in Jungle Book 2 , as Zugor in Tarzan 2 and as a ferryman in Arthur and the Minimoys . In 2004, he tried his hand in Jean Genet's drama Les Screens ( The walls ) and on the stage of the Théâtre National de Chaillot .

Discography (selection)

Albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
FR FR MOVE BE W
2001 Amoureux de vous! FR102 (3 weeks)
FR 		-
2006 Dick Rivers FR61 (8 weeks)
FR 		-
2008 L'homme sans age FR61 (4 weeks)
FR 		BE W68 (1 week)
BE W
2011 Mister D FR61 (4 weeks)
FR 		-
2013 Gran 'tour - BE W156 (1 week)
BE W
2014 Best of des legends yéyés - BE W67 (7 weeks)
BE W
Rivers FR80 (2 weeks)
FR 		BE W158 (1 week)
BE W
2019 5/5 FR75 (5 weeks)
FR 		BE W41 (6 weeks)
BE W
2020 Rock 'n' Roll Show FR42 (... weeks)
Template: chart table / maintenance / provisional / 2020FR 		BE W57 (... weeks)
Template: chart table / maintenance / provisional / 2020BE W

literature

  • Pierre Saka: 50 ans de chanson française. France Loisirs, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-7242-5790-1
  • Gilles Verlant: L'Odyssée de la Chanson française. Ed. Hors Collection, Paris 2006, ISBN 978-2-258-07087-5

Web links

Notes and evidence

  1. ↑ Pierre Saka, 50 ans de chanson française, 1994, p. 30.
  2. ↑ a b Gilles Verlant, L'Odyssée de la Chanson française, 2006, p. 108.
  3. ↑ Pierre Saka, 50 ans de chanson française, 1994, p. 93.
  4. ↑ a b Gilles Verlant, L'Odyssée de la Chanson française, 2006, p. 109.
  5. ↑ Authendick is a word game , the Rivers' name with the adjective authentique (in German authentic linked).
  6. ↑ tour announcement at leblogtvnews.com.
  7. ↑ " Dick Rivers, icon of French rock and roll, is dead " from April 24, 2019 at lemonde.fr
  8. ↑ Chart sources: FR BEW
personal data
SURNAME Rivers, Dick
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Forneri, Hervé (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French singer and actor
DATE OF BIRTH April 24, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Nice , France
DATE OF DEATH April 24, 2019
Place of death Paris , France