Okay, chances are you have never heard of Claude Francois, in fact neither had I until recently, but that doesn't mean you should continue to live in the dark with who he is any longer.
Claude rose to prominence in France in the 60's and 70's becomming one of the most loved and prominent French recording artists of the time. He recordered hundreds of songs during this period, mainly in French, many also in English and some in other languages such as Spanish and Italian. Indeed he recorded over 350 songs in French during his career and he wrote many of them.
He also re-wrote many popular songs into French that had been recorded at the timein English. (Including 'I go to Rio' by Peter Allan) See video
There is one reason why every English speaker who has even a passing interest in music should know who Claude Francois is.
In 1967 Claude wrote a song called 'Comme d'Habitude' (translated to 'As Usual' in English) which became a very popular hit in France. During that summer an American named Paul Anka was holidaying in the south of France and kept hearing this song on the radio and something about it really twigged with him. On his way back to the US, he stopped by Paris and had a meeting with Claude, asking if he could buy the rights to the song as he wanted to re-write and re-record it into English. He later did this, and then went to see Frank Sinatra with this new version which was titled "My Way". Frank ended up recording it, and of course the rest is history.
So there is your little piece of trivia, one of the greatest songs of the 20th century was originally written by a semi-obscure Frenchman.
Claude became increasingly popular during the 70's as he moved away from his youthful 60's style ballads to more mainstream music of the time (Disco). He also had a dance troupe that accompanied him called the "Claudettes" (see Peter Allan video) Claude also has the honour of being the 6th highest selling artist in France of all time (just behind Celine Dion) but ahead of The Beatles, Madonna and Michael Jackson. (Johnny Hallyday as I have dicussed in a previous post is actually number 1)
Claude's fame rose throughout the 70's, however his life was without incident. In 1975 he was caught up in an IRA bombing while he was staying in a hotel London and was lucky to escape relatively uninjured. In 1977 he was followed by a crazed fan in his car, and was shot at while he was on his way home.
On the 9 & 10th of March 1978 Claude recordered his latest songs for an upcomming new album.
The next day (11th of March) Claude was at home preparing to make an appearance on a popular TV variety show. He was at his house in Paris and was having a shower to prepare for the show. During his shower the lightbulb in his bathroom stopped working, and while he was standing in his bath with water around his feet reached up to take out the offending light bulb. He was immediately electrocuted and suffered a fatal heart attack as a result. He was by himself and was not discovered untill some worried friends came round after he could not be contacted by the producers of the show. His death at age 39 was announced on the show.
France went into mourning, and indeed there were allegedly (i have this on good authority from a couple of older French people) a couple of young girls who committed suicide so they could join Claude as they could not stand to be in a world without him.
On the day of his funeral 15th March 1978, his latest single was released post-humously titled, "Alexandrie, Alexandra" and naturally went on to become his highest selling single.
Luckily for us he performed this song many many times before his death. So here it is. If you are only going to watch one video on this page, watch this one. The dancing is awesome!
Claude is now buried in a cemetery in Dannemois about an hour outside Paris where he lived. The building still stands in which he was electrocuted, and indeed the street outside is now named after him.
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