THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,753) Ronnie Bird — “Sad Soul”
French rock star Ronnie Bird gives us a compelling performance in English of this “sublime” and “moody” A-side (Flipped Out Phil, https://flippedoutphil.substack.com/p/ronnie-bird-the-frenchman-with-the), co-written by two of his band members including future Foreigner star Mick Jones. “Sad soul and a tired mind Gonna leave this world behind”. Actually, I could see Foreigner turning this into a hit a decade later! The single contained “the only Sixties recordings featuring Ronnie singing in English and, alas, they marked the effective end of his career as a pop star.” (Flipped Out Phil again).
Richie Unterberger tells us of Ronnie:
During the mid-’60s, Ronnie Bird [Ronald Mehu] was the only French artist to successfully emulate the sounds of the British Invasion across the channel. Bird was one of the few French singers with a facility for singing rock & roll in French without sounding strained or embarrassing. His first few discs were crafted with the help of expatriate guitarist Mickey Baker . . . half of Mickey & Sylvia and responsible for great session work on numerous rock and R&B songs in the ’50s. Baker played on Bird’s discs and actually wrote a few tracks with him, although most of Bird’s records were French covers of songs by British giants like the Stones, the Who, the Pretty Things, and the Hollies. For a time, Bird’s band included guitarist Mick Jones, who went on to fame with Foreigner in the ’70s. Although extremely derivative of the tougher side of the British Invasion, Bird’s covers and originals were respectably hard-driving and well-executed. Dabbling in soul and psychedelia at times as the ’60s progressed, Bird eased out of the music business and emigrated to New York in the ’70s.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ronnie-bird-mn0000275014#biography
Larousse adds (courtesy of Google Translate):
He hung out with the gang at the Champs-Élysées drugstore, a mecca for “twinks” crazy about English pop. Ronnie Bird formed his own band, the Blazers, at seventeen, then dropped out of school to join the Rebelles. Henri Leproux, owner of the Golf Drouot – this rock temple in search of young talent – gave him his chance. RB was signed to Decca in 1964. Dressed in the style of the English mods (skimpy trousers and jackets, pointed boots, hair in a helmet à la Brian Jones), he covered songs by Buddy Holly, the Small Faces and the Who. After a notable appearance at the Mutualité in June 1964 for the release of his second 45, in 1965 he covered two English hits, by the Rolling Stones and the Pretty Things (“Elle m’attend” and “Tu perds ton temps”). At the end of the 1960s, Ronnie Bird realized that the time for adaptations was over. In 1968, he recorded “Le Pivert” and then “SOS Mesdemoiselles”, with original music by his musicians Tommy Brown (drummer) and Micky Jones (guitarist, future Foreigner). Ronnie sometimes wrote the lyrics himself for these rocking songs with strong “Stonian” accents (“Tu ne sais pas”, “la Surprise”, or “Si quelque chose m’arrived”). The public gradually forgot him, but not those nostalgic for the French “mod” style. He moved to New York in the early 1970s where he became a cameraman at the Antenne 2 office.
https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/Ronald_Mehu_dit_Ronnie_Bird/155989
Here’s a video:
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