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Biography
Use dmy dates|date=May 2011Expand French|date=November 2010|Claude Françoisrefimprove|date=July 2009Infobox musical artist | name = Claude François| image =Claude François (1976) by Erling Mandelmann - 5.jpg| caption = Claude François in 1976| image_size =| background = solo_singer| birth_name = Claude Antoine Marie François| alias = Cloclo| birth_date = birth date|1939|2|1|df=y|birth_place = Ismaïlia , Egypt| death_date = dda|1978|3|11|1939|2|1|df=y|death_place =Paris, France| instrument = human voice|Vocals | genre = Pop music| occupation = Musician, singer, songwriter| years_active = 1962–1978| label = Fontana, Phillips, Flèche| associated_acts =| website = Claude François (1 February 1939 – 11 March 1978) was a French pop singer, songwriter and dancer. He notably wrote and composed Comme d'habitude ," the original version of " My Way (song)|My Way " and ''Parce que je t'aime mon enfant , the original version of " My Boy ." Some of his most famous songs are Le lundi au soleil , Magnolias for ever and Alexandrie Alexandra .
Claude François sold some 70 million records during his career (and after his death) and was about to embark for the U.S. when he accidentally electrocuted himself in 1978 at age 39. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2012/04/-french-film-festival-city-of-lights-city-of-angels-kicks-off-monday.html French film festival City of Lights, City of Angels kicks off Monday, 3 feb. 2012 His place in the entertainment world was roughly analogous to Cliff Richard in Great Britain , with a dash of Tom Jones (singer)|Tom Jones .In France, he is described as the French Elvis Presley. Live, Claude François was also seen as James Brown with a soul bypass. Former French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing is quoted as saying Claude François was, to him, the equivalent of The Beatles . http://www.theartsdesk.com/new-music/france-remembers-claude-fran%C3%A7ois France Remembers Claude François, The Artsdesk, 13 feb. 2012
Biography
Early life
The son of an Italian ( Calabria n) mother and a French father, Claude François was born in Egypt , in the city of Ismaïlia , where his father, Aimé François (1908–1961), was working as a shipping traffic controller on the Suez Canal . In 1951 the job took the family to the city of Port Tawfik on the Gulf of Suez .
The singer's full name was Claude Antoine Marie. It was traditional in his father's family to give boys names that start with the letter A, but his mother managed to impose her will and named him "Claude." "Antoine" was then given as a middle name, and "Marie," the name of the Virgin Mary, was also given in order to protect the child. Claude François had an older sister, Josette ( 1934- ), who wrote her memoirs in 2008.
François' mother, Lucia Mazzeï (1919–1992), also known as Chouffa, was very musical and had her son take piano and violin lessons. On his own, the boy learned to play the drums. As a result of the 1956 SuezCrisis , the family returned to live in Monaco , where they struggled financially after François' father fell ill and could not work. A young François found a job as a bank clerk and at night earned extra money playing drums with an orchestra at the luxury hotels along the French Riviera . With a good but untested nasal singing voice, he was offered a chance to sing at a hotel in the fashionable Mediterranean resort town of Juan-les-Pins . His show was well received and eventually he began to perform at the glamorous Nightclub|night-clubs along the Côte d'Azur . While working the clubs, he met Janet Woolcoot, an English dancer whom he married in 1960.
Professional career
Under a new manager, François' career continued to blossom. In 1963 he followed the first success with another French adaptation of an American song, this time recording If I Had a Hammer and Walk Right In in French as '' If I Had a Hammer|Si j'avais un marteau and Walk Right In|Marche Tout Droit . François met Michel Bourdais who was working for the well-known French magazine Yé-yé|Salut les Copains '' ("Hi Buddies"). He liked the rigor and the precision of Michel’s drawings and asked him to draw his portrait. This drawing has remained very famous until now. Capitalizing on his blond good looks, he mimicked Elvis Presley 's stage style as well as the slicked-back hair. Performing in sequined suits, François gave high-energy stage performances that had hordes of adoring teenage fans racing to the music shops to purchase his latest record or lining up to buy a ticket for his shows.
5 April 1963,cite web|url= http://www.claudefrancois-lesite.fr/page.php? page=/bio/bio.htm |title=Claude François - Le Site |publisher=www.ClaudeFrancois-LeSite.fr |date= |accessdate=2011-10-22 he headlined at the Paris Olympia , a sign that he had arrived. At the end of that year, François created original new dance steps, and Michel Bourdais drew them. For the first time, they brought up the idea of setting up a show with female dancers. In January 1965, while returning from a trip to Las Vegas, Francois, fascinated by the American shows, decided to take them as a model, and eventually the project of performing on the stage with a female dancer band became clear in his mind.
A dedicated professional, François worked hard to achieve success, producing a string of massively popular hit songs and touring constantly. With the onslaught of The Beatles|Beatlemania , he covered their hits in French, adjusted the hair style a little and kept his success moving ahead. But his talent for kitsch extended beyond copying the works others had made famous, and he wrote songs for himself and displayed a melodic voice when singing romantic ballads.
In 1966, François created a complete new stage act using four female dancers as backup. Named " Les Claudettes ," the sexy girls danced in the background while François did his own energetic work center stage. In a return to the Paris Olympia he added eight musicians and a full orchestra to his backup dancers, putting on a spectacular show that filled every seat in the large theater and left fans standing in the street for lack of tickets.
Divorced from his wife, in 1967 he began a relationship with Eurovision-winning singer France Gall . Their affair was short-lived and he soon met Isabelle Forêt, with whom he had two sons in two years. Flushed with enormous success and confidence, he established his own record company. In 1967, he and Jacques Revaux wrote and composed a song in French called '' Comme d'habitude ("As Usual"), which became a hit in Francophone countries. Canadian singing star Paul Anka reworked it for the English-speaking public into the now legendary hit most famously sung by Frank Sinatra as " My Way (song)|My Way " .
He also sang the original version of "Parce que je t'aime, mon enfant" (Because I Love You My Child) in 1971, which, while remaining relatively little-known in France, was taken over by Elvis Presley under the title " My Boy ".
Although François continued his successful formula of adapting English and American rock and roll hits for the French market, by the 1970s the market had changed and the disco craze that swept North America took root in France. For the versatile François, this was not a problem. He simply re-invented himself as the king of French disco, recording La plus belle chose du monde , a French version of the Bee Gees ' hit record, Massachusetts .
Looking for new talent, he came across a singing family of two sisters and their cousins. These ladies became known as " Cocktail Chic|Les Flêchettes " (named after "Flêche", the production label he owned). He produced a couple of albums for them before his death, and the ladies went on to sing for some of the major stars in European music.
He worked non-stop, touring across Europe, Africa and at major venues in Quebec in Canada. However, in 1971, his workload caught up with him when he collapsed on stage from exhaustion. After a brief period off, he returned to the recording studios, releasing several best-selling hits throughout the early 1970s. He expanded from owning his own record company to acquiring a celebrity magazine and a modeling agency . Although driven to achieve financial success, in 1974 he organized a concert to raise funds for a charity for handicapped children, and the following year he participated in a Paris concert to raise funds for medical research. By the mid-1970s he was single again, dating several well-known European stars. He continued to perform while overseeing his numerous business interests. In 1975, while in London, he narrowly escaped death when an Provisional Irish Republican Army|IRA bomb exploded and two years later a gangster tried to shoot him while he drove his car. In 1977 and 1978, more than 15 years after his first hit record, he was still topping the musical charts with multi-million sales from hits such as Alexandrie Alexandra (this one was issued on the exact day of his burial) and performing to large audiences.
International career
He performed an international career mostly in Belgium and Switzerland but also in Italy, Spain, England and Canada. In 1976, his song Tears ont the telephone in n°34 in the english Top 40. In 1978, January 16, he performed a gala at the Royal Albert Hall in London (6000 spectators).
Death
After working in Switzerland on 9 and 10 March and recording a television special for the BBC on Saturday, 11 March 1978, he returned to his Paris apartment in order to appear, the next day, on "Les Rendez-vous du Dimanche" with TV host Michel Drucker . As he was standing in a filled bath, with wet hands he tried to straighten a lighting Sconce (light fixture)|sconce on the wall above the tub and was accidentally electrocuted. His tragic death at only 39 years of age brought a wave of public sympathy for a French "national treasure."
François owned a house near the village of Dannemois in the Essonne department about convert|55|km|mi|abbr=on south of Paris. It was a place where he liked to spend time relaxing—in the quiet countryside—and Dannemois is the town where he was buried.
On 11 March 2000, on the 22nd anniversary of his death, Place Claude-François in Paris was named in his memory; it is located right in front of the building where he died.
A biopic called Cloclo ( My Way internationally) was released in March 2012 to coincide with the anniversary of his death. It runs two and a half hours long and stars Jérémie Renier .
Discography
Expand section|comprehensive list of albums|date=March 2012
2012: Génération Cloclo
2012: 30 ans - Édition aniversaire (Compilation album)
Partial list of his original songs
Nabout twist (Claude François)
Pauvre petite fille riche (Hubert Giraud, Claude François, Vline Buggy)
Je sais (Gérard Gustin, Claude François)
Même si tu revenais (Bernard Kesslair, Claude François)
Mais combien de temps (Claude François, Vline Buggy)
The Marvelous Toy ( Tom Paxton ): Le jouet extraordinaire
And I Love You So (song)|And I Love You So ( Don McLean ): ''Et je t'aime tellement
References
reflist
External links
http://www.claudefrancois-lesite.fr/
http://www.rfimusique.com/siteEn/biographie/biographie_6147.asp Claude Francois biography
IMDb name|0291965
http://www.claudefrancois-lesite.fr Official web-site
Persondata | NAME =Francois, Claude | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = | DATE OF BIRTH =1 February 1939 | PLACE OF BIRTH = Ismaïlia , Egypt | DATE OF DEATH =11 March 1978 | PLACE OF DEATH = Paris, France DEFAULTSORT:Francois, Claude Category:1939 births Category:1978 deaths Category:People from Ismailia Governorate Category:Accidental deaths by electrocution Category:Egyptian emigrants to France Category:People of Calabrian descent Category:French male singers Category:French pop singers Category:French singer-songwriters Category:French-language singers Category:French people of Italian descent Category:Accidental deaths in France Category:French people of Egyptian descent
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