DISCOver Alain Wisniak!

[Videoskooter]

For people who are not that familiar with the name: he's the man who composed so many of your favourite Disco tracks. Most famous is his work for Cerrone and Bob Sinclar.

And he has a site with great pics and info on his life and career:

Just be sure to click on all the links and have fun with the rare stuff that's on it!

I guarantee that you will love it!

Big thanks to a certain "French Disco God" who guided me to:

Tralalamusic

M.C Merci beaucoup :icon_mrgreen:

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

For people who are not that familiar with the name: he's the man who composed so many of your favourite Disco tracks. Most famous is his work for Cerrone and Bob Sinclar.

Thanks for this! He truly deserves Tribute! And he excelled in so many forms of music, as well as Disco.

With the years of chatter surrounding Cerrone, Alec, Don Ray, etc... It seems Alain Wisniak never received his fair share of praise, or notariety. (At least, not in the US.) His works with Lene Lovich are timeless! And that they came together again, in 2000 (2001?), to work with Bob Sinclair is fascinating news.

I didn't see mention of "Chi Chi Favelas & The Black and White Band", but I'm glad it's referenced in the photo gallery captions.

[twiceage]

Here is an extract from an old article (in french) about the comeback of Cerrone with the album 'Cerrone By Bob Sinclar' in 2001.
I do my best for translation ;)

' Alain Wisniak claims today that Cerrone was above all a good drummer, and one of the best businessman in show business...
«Cerrone became famous through his music, he says. But his music, it's me who composed it entirely! And he left us in the shadow, me and the arranger Raymond Donnez. However, it was a born leader and an extraordinaire seller. He was only doing this from morning until night.
One day in the studio, he began recording his drum part, then he went to phone while we were doing the rest of the song: he was already selling it, while he had not even heard it ! » '

[SandraDee]

Sounds like Cerrone's role was similar to Jacques Fred Petrus or Pete Waterman's - he was the person who brought it all together & knew what sold but left the making of the actual music to other people.

[Cory Ander]

whenever possible I prefer to hear both sides of a story like this instead of only one side. And I always wonder why some people wait decades to reveal such information.

[Dr. Disco]

Here is an extract from an old article (in french) about the comeback of Cerrone with the album 'Cerrone By Bob Sinclar' in 2001.
I do my best for translation ;)

' Alain Wisniak claims today that Cerrone was above all a good drummer, and one of the best businessman in show business...
«Cerrone became famous through his music, he says. But his music, it's me who composed it entirely! And he left us in the shadow, me and the arranger Raymond Donnez. However, it was a born leader and an extraordinaire seller. He was only doing this from morning until night.
One day in the studio, he began recording his drum part, then he went to phone while we were doing the rest of the song: he was already selling it, while he had not even heard it ! » '

Very interesting info from Alain. It's similar to what Jacques Morali said 20 years ago.
Back in 1991 while being interviewed for an article by French journalist Didier Lestrade, Morali claimed that Cerrone did not do any composing. In addition, Morali went on to remark that Cerrone was the biggest con he knew.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Fg68at/Baustelle/Morali-Interview

[BrunoRepublic]

Ooh, there's some good dish in that interview!

Lestrade: "Pendant plusieurs années, tu as été le symbole de la disco française."

Morali: "Mes disques étaient quand même meilleurs que ceux de Cerrone (rires) ! C’était même pas lui qui composait. Cerrone est le plus grand con que je connaisse sur terre. Et complètement prétentieux, en plus."

Even through Google translate, the message comes out loud and clear.

[PierreConstantin]

*Morali: "Cerrone est le plus grand con que je connaisse sur terre. Et complètement prétentieux, en plus."*

Apparently thas was common knowledge :-)

In the 70’s, Cerrone wasn’t respected in France for its music considered easy, cheap and vulgar. In the 80’s and the 90’s he didn’t sell records. The only thing he sold was his name for a couple of crime stories he didn’t wrote. The big turn in his image was the Bob Sinclar album, when a generation who hasn’t heard of him before discovered the guy.

On this forum, people are positive about him and that is a big change with my teenage days!

BTW, his Wikipedia article in French is 100% promotional and unreliable, and unfortunately it's the basis for the English version.*

Wisniak wrote the music for some successfull movies (at least here) in the 80’s. As a side note he produced Régine with the French version of «I will survive» (« Je survivrai ») and its follow-up.

[Videoskooter]

And Alain Wisniak teamed up with Bob Sinclar for the "III" album and so the Disco circle is round and around!

Like this Cerronesque track, n'est-ce pas?

[PierreConstantin]

Ooh, there's some good dish in that interview!

Lestrade: "Pendant plusieurs années, tu as été le symbole de la disco française."

Morali: "Mes disques étaient quand même meilleurs que ceux de Cerrone (rires) ! C’était même pas lui qui composait. Cerrone est le plus grand con que je connaisse sur terre. Et complètement prétentieux, en plus."

Even through Google translate, the message comes out loud and clear.

And what he says about Ritchie Family :-)

"Les Ritchie Familly, c’étaient trois boudins qu’ il fallait arranger. Elles étaient grosses, il leur fallait des costumes somptueux pour les pochettes.Parfois, ce n’étaient même pas elles qui chantaient sur les disques et elles ne le savaient même pas. Mais il fallait qu’elles soient brillantes et à l’époque, Casablanca dépensait des fortunes pour les pochettes." (RF were three lumps who needed beautiful gowns for the album covers and Casablanca spent lots of money for the covers. Sometimes they didn't even sing the songs but they didn't know it.).