June 12, 2024
Goodbye to Françoise Hardy.
From the WaPo obituary: "Françoise Hardy, a French singer-songwriter whose melancholy voice, doe-eyed beauty and trendsetting sense of style made her an international sensation in her teens, captivating fashion designers and beguiling musicians such as Bob Dylan and David Bowie, has died at 80."
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22 comments:
What a nice voice. Never heard of her, but I'll go listen to more of her songs.
thanx for posting..
I love french female singers.. But didn't know Françoise Hardy
I've added her to my list down..
I'm sorry she's passed
Don't know her so looked her up.
Very pretty.
Was she talented as a singer, or was she a beautiful woman that was packaged as a singer?
It happens...
PS...just listened. She's no Lulu or Diana Ross, but that's OK.
WOW! she's really good!
Man, the Sixties!
Francoise was plastered on the walls of my sophisticated fraternity bros in 1968. We wanted to go to Paris and meet girls like her. (No one took a realistic look at the odds.)
For a brief moment we thought French class (five quarters required for a BA in those years) might somehow pay off.
Here are the three leading French chanteuses of the 60s: Francoise Hardy, Sylvie Vartan, and Petula Clark singing a medley. https://youtu.be/kKeT9kalS9I?si=x2JLaD7Za4hlB5sD
Great voice. She is a younger Edith Piaf.
Let me tell you about Catherine Deneuve in "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg"...
Petula Clark (still alive at 91) is as English as Colman's Mustard.
Petula Clark was British. Maybe she recorded some things in French, but she was not French.
My wife, who grew up in Beirut where French is an official language, had a dream about Hardy just last night, singing one of my wife's favorite songs that she remembers from high school. Do we live in a simulation or what?
Tous les garçons et les filles made a lasting impression. I was 13...
And her French accent in Only Friends was disarming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRGoFxnJsKA
Asking the weighty questions: Who would have been on the high side of a seesaw in their respective 60's heyday -- Francoise or Twiggy? This is prob a 105.5 vs 105.7 battle.
I first ran into Mlle Hardy from still shots of the movie "Grand Prix", and other motorsports photos. She shall be missed.
Speaking of the poems that constitute the liner notes to 1964's "Another Side of Bob Dylan" (as I was, just the other day):
for françoise hardy
at the seine's edge
a giant shadow
of notre dame
seeks t' grab my foot
sorbonne students
whirl by on thin bicycles
swirlin' lifelike colors of leather spin
the breeze yawns food
far from the bellies
or erhard meetin' johnson
piles of lovers
fishing
kissing
lay themselves on their books. boats.
old men
clothed in curly mustaches
float on the benches
blankets of tourist
in bright red nylon shirts
with straw hats of ambassadors
(cannot hear nixon's
dawg bark now)
will sail away
as the sun goes down
the doors of the river are open
i must remember that
i too play the guitar
it's easy t' stand here
more lovers pass
on motorcycles
roped together
from the walls of the water then
i look across t' what they call
the right bank
an' envy
your
trumpet
player
Back in the day, Jow Biden did a couple of karaoke duets with her..
His word as a Biden.
Not a joke..
Ah, another winsome icon from yesteryear, gone too soon. I simply adored Francoise. My first trip to France was in 1967, age 10, to see my grandmother. Francoise was everywhere, and I soaked her in like a sponge. I wasn't allowed to wear go-go boots, but by seventh grade had scored a navy cap a la Francoise and was sporting mini skirts with a wide white patent leather belt. Her je-ne-sais-quoi was out of reach, and French-girl thin is just impossible. I mean, they eat rien. But a little glimpse of French style early in life inoculated me against the kind of lazy, sloppy dressing that predominated on college campuses in the 70s. RIP.
"Françoise Hardy, a French singer-songwriter whose melancholy voice, doe-eyed beauty and trendsetting sense of style made her an international sensation in her teens, captivating fashion designers and beguiling musicians such as Bob Dylan and David Bowie, has died at 80.
I guess you get money for captivating fashion designers, but if you beguile big rockers what do you get? I think we all know.
Non, je ne regrette rien.
Though Petula Clark was British, her English and American fame in the mid to late 60s came after her triumph in France in the late 1950s and early 60s, where her French language covers of “I Will Follow Him” and “Ya Ya” were smash hits. She also recorded several songs by Serge Gainsbourg and Jacques Brel gave her his sing “En Enfant.” She recorded French, German, and Spanish versions of “Downtown.” So, though her country of origin is Britain (actually Wales) she’s also, like Mlles Vartain and Hardy, a chanteuse!
I was 11-12 years old and living in France when Françoise Hardy burst on the scene. I've had a crush on her since. A part of my childhood died Tuesday.
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