THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
2,134) France Gall — “Made in France”
France Gall (see #36, 1,361) “satirizing Swinging London”? https://www.roughtrade.com/en-us/product/france-gall/made-in-france-france-gall-s-baby-pop) I love it yé-yé-yé! Gall’s “60s output . . . is pluperfect music of its kind: so very French and so very pop that it’s sometimes scarcely believable.” (Oregano Rathbone, https://recordcollectormag.com/reviews/album/made-in-france-france-galls-baby-pop) I believe!
“Made in” appears on Gall’s album 1968 (released in ‘67). Third Man Records writes:
Without a doubt this is the weirdest France Gall record. 1968 dives further into the psychedelia that she was hinting at on Baby Pop. Even with the addition of sitars and echoes of The Beatles, The Stones, The Kinks and Pet Sounds era Beach Boys all over this record it is still 100% French and could only have been made by France Gall. The addition of English expat producer/arranger, David Whitaker, brought a new and welcome airiness to the mix that was lacking on Gall’s earlier recordings.
Stewart Mason adds:
Definitely the weirdest record of France Gall’s career, 1968 (released in 1967) shows the influence of British psychedelia as it spread across the English Channel. . . . Even though echoes of Revolver and Sgt. Pepper (and others) are all over this, its French roots are still easily identifiable and unmistakable as French. Further, its performances, are easily identifdiable as Gall’s as they build on the ye-ye production experiments . . . from the singer’s two previous albums . . . . [T]his is an influential and essential album from the ye-ye scene of the mid-60s . . . .
Thom Jurek tells us about France Gall’s 1960s:
Although best known as the perky teenager who won the 1965 Eurovision Song Contest with the Serge Gainsbourg-penned “Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son,” that entry only marked the beginning of a long and fruitful career for French pop singer France Gall. One of the original yé-yé girls . . . bringing the nascent pop style to the charts; it was called “yé-yé” as a nod to British Invasion bands and their “yeah-yeah” refrains. Gall also scored another, far more controversial hit with Gainsbourg’s “Les Sucettes”, which translates to “Lollipops.” It was packed with obvious double-entendres that the singer claimed not to know existed. The blatant sexuality, coupled with the naive innocence of the teenage singer, marked her career in the annals of pop history. . . . At age 15 in 1962, Gall was encouraged by her father to record some songs and send the professionally cut demos to music publisher Denis Bourgeois, who signed her to the Philips label immediately. The four-track EP Ne Sois Pas Si Bete (the standard in French pop music release format at the time) was an enormous hit, selling over 200,000 copies in France thanks both to the irresistible title track and the absolutely stunning cover photo. Gall released a series of similarly successful pop hits for the next several years, peaking with winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 1965. Though many dismissed Gall as merely a Francophone Lesley Gore making fluffy and ultra-commercial pop songs with little substance, her hits from the era have endured the test of time. . . . Although Gall’s high, breathy voice was admittedly somewhat limited, she made the most of it. Even deliberately trite hits such as “Sacre Charlemagne,” a duet with a pair of puppets from a popular children’s show on French TV, have an infectious charm. More substantive tunes, such as the sultry jazz-tinged ballad “Pense a Moi” and the brilliant rocker “Laisse Tomber les Filles [see #36],” are easily as good as any pop single produced in the U.S. or Great Britain at the time. In 1966, Gall’s public persona shifted into a more mature phase, both musically and personally. . . . [coming] with that year’s controversial hit “Les Sucettes.” . . . [It] and its follow-up, “Baby Pop” are among Gall’s finest recorded moments; they are more musically sophisticated and varied than her early hits, yet remain just as catchy. The psychedelic era found Gall, under Gainsbourg’s tutelage, singing increasingly strange songs, like “Teenie Weenie Boppie” (a bizarre tune about a deadly LSD trip that somehow involves Mick Jagger) set to some of Gainsbourg’s most out-there arrangements. The excellent 1968 is Gall’s best album from the period . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/france-gall-mn0000799466#biography
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