euro disco more info for the doubters

[jamesyirishguy]

thank you all for your responses to my message. I appreciate that. I am writing this for those who wanted more info on the artists I mentioned in my first debut message. (Just joined you guys last week! :D ) Ok first and foremost; Claude Francois. Claude was not a pure disco artist. He was a well established french musician long before disco fever gripped the world. He simply did what every other artist was doing at that time, Hopping on the disco bandwagon. Although primarily he was what i would call a cabaret style artist. I will give you the names, dates and my personal ratings of his disco material.
1. Le Lundi au soleil (1972) (A1)
2. Belinda (1972) (A2)
3. Magnolias forever (1977) (A1) (Great Song!)
4. Disco Meteo (1977) (A2) (Very original)
5. Laisse une chance a notre amour (A2) (C.V. of jimmy james and the vagabonds :- Now is the time)
6. Alexandrie Alexandra (1978) (His masterpiece!)
If there is one thing i would criticise Claude for it would be his song writing. He only wrote about 15% of his material. The rest being written for him or having the dubious cover version accolade. However with his soulful melodies his ordinary man looks and his fantastic dancing and shows he endeared himself to a famously conservative french nation and captivated millions of teenage disco goers for 2 decades and is in my opinion one of the greats.

Next up Gilbert Montagne. Another french man, another genius. Just like Claude he was well known throughout europe before the disco peak 0f 75-82. But his career peak came a little bit after claudes' say 6 years. If I were to describe him I would say he is a mix of elton john/michael jackson. He was the sort of the french equivalent of stevie wonder being blind from birth. He peaked around 84.

1. Ta vie (1981) (A1)
2. On va s'aimer (1984) (*)
3. Sous le sunlight de tropiques (1984) (*) (His masterwork)
4. Viens vite (1985) (A1) (Very catchy)

Gilbert was a glitzy idealist sort of artist he wrote about teenage love innocent disco outings and his dreams of a perfect world. But his style was most definitely disco.
Thumbs up from jamesy.

I will give you more info later in the week about other european artists.

[vodkatonique]

I was wondering if Karen Cheryl ever did disco or was she always primarily into bubblegum pop ?

[JussiK]

Karen Cheryl had a hitette in 2 languages with "La Marche des Machos/Show Me You're Man Enough" in 1978. This midtempo chugger has the artiste giggling sexily too so it's a good buy if you can find it - try vinyl stores in Paris or anywhere in France for the superior French version.

[DJ Jimmy M]

After weeding through tons of Claude Francois tracks heres what I found to be disco..a few were mentioned above and some wernt:

Cette Annee La (cover of "oh what a night"..yes the vali tune)

Une Chanson Francaise (begins like a ballad then into a hustle disco track, bout a 115 BPM roughly)

Soudain Il Ne Reste Qu'une Chanson (cover of the spinners "i'll be around" done in a george mcrea style/1976 tk records style disco)

Je Vais A Rio (cover of "i go to rio" by that wacky aussie dude..ya know who i mean right? (cant remember his name lol)..this is close to the original but has a disco pounding to it)

Meme Si Tu Revenais mix 87 (if he died in 78 then this mix 87 was a 1987 dance version of something? whatever it is its decent 80's disco..kinda like the bannanarama/dead or alive sound to it)


I also found some other intersting cover stuff from Claude Francois which was good but not disco, like some covers of Motown stuff and a nice version of "My Way"..the famous Frank song. Also, on the track Magnolias Forever I noticed his female backing vocals are Alec Costandinos' famous backing vocals (ya know what i mean, cant mistake these voices). Can anyone confirm this? As for the one track mentioned "Disco Meteo" I havent been able to find an mp3 to check out of that one but id love to hear it too cause i like what i heard so far of the disco era (1976-78) stuff.


DJ Jimmy M

[vodkatonique]

Honestly, I'm a bit ashamed of not being more versed into French disco, but once my best friend was hearing "I'll be there" by Gloria Gaynor & said hey, it's Claude François. I said :"you must be kidding". Apparently, he did a cover called "J'attendrais". I don't know if it retained the soul/disco flavour of the original though.

[JussiK]

Claude's backup dancers were the Glodettes, who can be seen in action on a recent dvd realese centering on his disco stuff. The 70's snippets are rudely interrupted by new footage of clubbers posing for the camera. Still, the original material is worth the steep price the dvd commands. But are those Glodettes the same that appearared on the slleve of "banzaii featuring the Glodettes: Viva America" ? - Claude was big here in my country since his 2nd(?) wife Pia was Finnish.

I've been in lookout of Claude's track 24 Femmes - can anyone say which year this came out and on what album?

[DJ Jimmy M]

"I'll Be There" was a Motown track from 1969 or 70 (Four Tops was the original). Then Gloria Gaynor did an early disco version in 1974. Claude's I recently discovered and its not disco, its very very very close to the original..so close its scary lol. Only difference is the vocals of corse but music sound like the original Four Tops track. It's good if you like classic Motown soul. I also got to hear "Disco Meteo". Great track. About all of Claude's disco tracks..they are all too damn short..was there 12" disco versions of any of these?

DJ Jimmy M