Customer Reviews

Vogue Years

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This double CD collection covers Francoise Hardy's recording period with Vogue Records 1962-1967. Hardy was only 18 years old when she recorded the songs for her first album in 1962; so it was very unusual that she was allowed to record so much of her own material; great thing she was, because she was ( still is ) a very accomplished songwriter. In fact most of her biggest were written or co-written by Hardy herself.

The song selections concentrate on her first 5 albums ( 1962-66 ) and contemporary singles and EP tracks. Her 6th much-acclaimed Vogue album "Ma Jeunesse Fout le Camp" is only represented by "Qui Peut Dire" and "Voila". Most surprisingly that her last Vogue original album ( in Frech language ) "Comment te Dire Adieu" is not represented at all.

Never the less, this is a great compilation featuring the vast majority of her best songs of the period - obviously some great songs had to be left out; simply because lack of space. I can't help mentioning just a few songs that are missing ( seek them out elsewhere!) . The 1964 EP-track "Jaloux" is one of my favourites, which I have not yet been able to find on a CD. The album tracks "Avant de ten Aller" and "Je Pensais" would have been great additions as well.

These early recordings from Hardy which founded her reputation as the greatest French international pop-star of the 1960's have stood the test of time, and sound remarkably appealing after all these years; where the output by many of her contemporary colleagues like Cilla Black, Petula Clark, Connie Francis or even Marianne Faithful ( her sixties recordings!) often sound pretty dated.

If you are not familiar with the early years of Francoise Hardy's career this collection would be the ideal place to start getting to know her. Outstanding songs like "Le Premier Bonheur du Jour", "Le Maison Ou J'ai Grandi", "Ce Petit Coeur" or "Rendezvous Automne" are more than likely to hit you - actually most of these songs are!

The 16 pages booklet features some nice pictures and a short biography, but only sparse information about the songs themselves; where they were first released etc. Personally I would have loved to have a little more information about the recordings, circumstances around them etc.

Still, until the 4 CD box featuring her complete Vogue recordings is available again, this CD is indispensable!

As someone who grew up listening to Françoise, I'm a few years younger than her, I can't recommend this double album highly enough. OK, "Ma jeunesse fout le camp" was probably her finest hour and finest album but all my favourites from years ago are here. What a megastar, what a beautiful person and what happiness she has brought me down the years. Thank you Francoise.

BTW she can still more than cut it today as with Blur in "To the end/La comedie" and in her beautiful video for "Un peu d'eau".

Super recommended.

Je me suis procurée avec bonheur cet album de Françoise. Il comprend presque tous ses succès des années 60 qui est ma période préférée musicalement. Elle alterne balades douces et chansons yé-yé rythmées. Son talent est indéniable, sa voix douce et reposante, ses textes simples et touchants qui décrivent les amours déçus et les états d'âme habilement explorés. J'y ai découvert des chansons que je ne connaissais pas comme "Tu peux bien" qui me fait frémir tant elle est réussie musicalement et qui est difficile à trouver sur les albums. Je recommande fortement surtout à ceux qui sont nostalgiques des années 60.

What can I say about this album. It's stunning, it's elegant and it's really a joy to listen to ( you probably thought for a minute there I was talking about her and not her music!)!

You have a fascinating little biography from Bob Stanley on her who speaks of her as a fan of her music and well what more can I say really. You need to hear this album and I mean that

Oh I should mention one thing is that I'm glad that these songs are all sung in French. It gives the songs a dimension of sensuality which I don't find in many English/American singers

Some say that Francoise recorded her best music after she left Vogue in 1967, but this compilation covering her early music from 1962 to 1967 is of a consistently high quality with presentation to match. Regardless of the quality of her later music, the music here is what she is best remembered for. Francoise wrote most of her own material. Her voice had a limited range but Francoise knew that and wrote her songs accordingly and any lack of range was compensated by quality. She recorded English versions of some of her songs but none of those are included here. All fifty songs here are in French. Because I don't know any French, I don't understand the words but when music is this good, it's worth hearing anyway.

Francoise was clearly influenced by many different styles. Folk-pop is perhaps the main style but you will also hear elements of rock'n'roll, R+B and country here and there, as well as the influences of her own French heritage. The set opens with her debut hit, Tous les garcons et les filles, which sold over two million copes in France. In those days, France did not bother much with singles or albums - records were four-track EP's. Subsequent EP's all did well without matching the success of her debut. In 1964, Francoise moved to London and was rewarded with a UK top twenty hit - All over the world - here in its French version as Danse le monde entire, which opens the second CD. The Seekers also recorded the song and I wonder how big a hit it would have been if their version had been released as a single instead of Francoise's.

In the sixties, Francoise spent some time socializing with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. While her music is not as important as theirs, it has a certain Gallic charm all of its own.

To begin by comparison, I originally bought the french 60 Songs import and wished I had purchased this one first. Francoise's original versions of her early vogue singles (4 song eps released every three months during her prolific heyday) have a much more understated orchestration than some of the remixes. Also, this two cd set gets to the heart of what makes Francoise one of the most interesting pop icons of the 60s. Her voice, though soft, is often warm and plaintive with a tonal resonance that stands up to repeated listenings. The tunes (most of them penned exclusively by her on an acoustic guitar) have a simplicity that is refreshing, real, and perhaps more relevant to the current edgy guitar pop that we know today. True, for younger listeners, the occasional choir-like background vocals may be a bit sappy, but with Francoise so up front, you tend to forgive a lot of those bygone conventions. Almost every song resonates with the catchiness of good 60s pop tunes and clocks in at an average of 2 minutes per. Francoise runs the gamut of rockabilly, folk, motown, haunting ballads, and country all with an acute ear for her craft - mixing the traditional french vocal style with the newer milieu that came from these shores. Perhaps if she had written more in English (the UK embraced her translated versions), she'd have been as well known in the states, but there's no denying her talent when it comes to melody and its affect on the imagination.

Françoise Hardy was one of my favorite icons of the '60's, with her sweet clear voice, her songwriting talent, and her incredible style. She just oozed style. Eventually getting bored with the life fame brought her, she followed her own path out of the limelight, but these songs from the "ye ye" years of international stardom are a treat for her fans.
Though some of the early tracks have less than perfect production and backup musicians, it's a terrific overview of her early career. She penned 40 of the 50 songs on this CD set, and some of them are beauties. "L'amour ne dure pas Toujours", "La Nuit est sur la Ville", "Voila", and many more.
There's a gentleness and a simplicity to these songs that delights me, and her voice, though limited, is expressive and appealing. The booklet insert is excellent, with lots of photos, a bio, and detailed song info...to quote from it, "...the Françoise Hardy of the mid sixties still looks and sounds truly modern", and I agree wholeheartedly.

As other writers have pointed out in reviews of other releases by this artist, Ms. Hardy was one of the relatively few female singers in the 1960s to pen her own material. This means a welcome absence (or near-absence) of cover versions. This set offers a nearly chronological anthology of her work from 1962 through 1967.

I was lured to this set by her association with British producer/songwriter Charles Blackwell who handled her recordings in 1964, 1965 and early 1966. Blackwell's most well-known accomplishment is probably P.J. Proby's first album, but he also arranged a number of early Joe Meek productions and produced many of the better records by admittedly obscure singer Samantha Jones. Blackwell's productions with Francoise Hardy do not disappoint, although Samantha Jones' "Don't Come Any Closer" still pips Hardy's French equivalent "Non Ce N'est Pas Un Reve." For that matter, Mina's original Italian version of "Se Telefonando" trumps Ms. Hardy's "Je Changerais D'avis." But both of those competing performances figure among the very best work by their respective artists, so this is no dishonor; it just shows the fine quality of the material used by Ms. Hardy when not doing her own. She even records a French-language version of one of the very few songs written by Dusty Springfield ("C'est le Passe" or "Once Upon a Time").

Bearing in mind that I bought this set for the Blackwell recordings (nearly half of the tracks on here), I found the work with producers Mickey Baker and Jacques Denjean to be equally effective. Baker created a Gaullic Spector sound which could pass for Charles Blackwell himself (but Baker worked with Hardy before Blackwell did). Following a ho-hum series of recordings under the auspices of Johnny Harris, Denjean created a more muscular but still balladic sound for Hardy's songs that seems much more recent than 1967. Her "Voila" from this period is positively timeless. Amazon lists a couple of albums from 1967 for Ms. Hardy. On the strength of her three 1967 tracks here, I will be eagerly buying them.

The early material pre-dating 1964 does less for me but there is the campy spy thriller theme soundalike "Le Temps de L'amour." And the first track "Tous les Garcons et les Filles" is charmingly French.

I know no French, and even so the terrific songs, arrangements and delivery serve up ample entertainment. And fifty tracks for less than $17 is very good value.