THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
2,008) Liz Brady — “Partie de Dames”/”Checkers Game”
In Liz Brady’s soaring yé-yé extravaganza, love is like a game of checkers.
Wikipedia tells us of Liz Brady:
Liz Brady . . . . Is the stage name of Raymonde Zaghikian, born in Cairo to a French-Armenian father and a Greek mother. From a very young age, she sang, becoming a choir soloist. Liz Brady went on to become a high-level rock ‘n’ roll dancer, participating in international competitions . . . In numerous countries. She married her dance partner who took her to live in England for six years, She then began singing in numerous cabarets in Egypt, Kenya and Beirut[, Lebanon]. There, she met a troupe of French dancers and asked them if they knew of an agency in Paris where she could work in France. They gave her their agency’s contact information, and Liz decided to get in touch. She had an appointment in Paris and began working in Parisian cabarets and nightclubs. Noticing Liz’s stage presence, the agency directors decided to have her record a 45 rpm single in a studio. In 1965, her first 4-track EP, “Hey o daddy o ,” was released by Pathé-Marconi. Three more 4-track EPs were released by Pathé. A new 4-track EP was released by Decca in November 1967 [including “Partie de Dames”]. During 1967, she also participated in the 4th Majorca International Song Festival with “Toi, moi et une rose” (You, Me and a Rose) . . . . She participated in the Budapest Festival the same year and brought back a song representing Yugoslavia, which she translated under the title “Si tu partais” (If You Left) and which was released by Decca. In April 1968, she moved to Quebec and formed the duo Les Scarabées with Martine Bee. They released three singles on Gamma and four on RCA-Canada, as well as an album. They earned a gold record with “Le cœur de mon pays”. The group disbanded in 1972. . . . In 1985, she moved to Florida. She has been singing there ever since under the name Liza Brady.
Liz’s website gives us a fascinating account of her life. Here are just two excerpts:
As her father’s family was very French, they welcomed into their home twenty members of the French Foreign Legion, waiting to leave for El Alamein in 1942. After dinner, during parties thrown to honour and entertain them, the soldiers would take Liz in their arms and twirl her around to the sound of her grandfather’s piano playing. Liz says that this is probably when her passion for music and dancing was born. The day the Legionnaires left for the front they wrote ‘Mondie’, Liz’s baby nickname, in lime on the hoods of their Jeeps and christened her ‘Mascot of the Legion’, by pouring a bottle of Arak on her head! . . .
One night in the wings of ‘Elle et Lui’ a tall man held out his business card and told her: “Give me a call, I’m very interested in signing a contract with you”. This man was Johnny Stark himself! Liz did not know him or anyone else in show-business in Paris at that time. Agents had very strict rules for artists under exclusivity contracts with them: “No meetings with competitors”, she had been told by her Managers at the Modei Agency. So Liz threw the business card away! Three years later, in 1967, she saw Mr. Stark again. She was now LIZ BRADY performing at the famous ‘Olympia of Paris’! She had already recorded 4 EP’s with Pathe/EMI, appeared on a slew of television variety shows, [and] toured France, Belgium and Switzerland with big names . . . . Johnny Stark was the manager of Johnny Hall[y]day, (often referred to as the French Elvis Presley) . . . . One evening Liz overheard Mr. Stark arguing with her manager Roberta, saying: “So, will you sell me this girl’s contract or not?” and Roberta’s answer was “No!”. . . . Richard also tried to buy out Liz’s contract in order to become her producer. He was willing to invest one million francs on her, but again her agents refused to let her go.
https://web.archive.org/web/20131005225357/http://lizbrady.com/biography.html
This clip of the song has some nice period video of Liz performing:
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