Les Compangnons De La Chanson

 

Venus

Les Compagnons De La Chanson

Capitol Records ST 10227

1960

From the back cover: France's finest vocal group is presented here with an even dozen songs – songs which have recently made it big in Paris on records.

Les Compagnons de la Chanson have now been together 17 years. There are still nine young men. Only three, in all that time, have quit the group.

One married Yvette Girard, the classy Parisian pop singer. Another wed a Canadian girl and now lives (with her, it is presumed) in Montreal. The third went out on his own for a solo career.

Jean Pierre Calvet has proven more than an adequate replacement and Jean Broussolle, with his Gallic flair for arranging, has shrewdly injected new coloring (sounds) into the group's routines.

"Tom Dooley" in French became a smash European hit for the revitalized Compagnons in 1959 – even a song imported from Israel, and sung in Hebrew, was popularized. It is the Hava Naguila which also is known under the title of "Dansons Mon Amour."

Eight of Les Compagnons are marrie.

Fred and Rene Mella, second and third tenors; Broussolle, the arranger and baritone, and Jean-Louis Jaubert, Jo Frachon and Gy Bourguignon, basses, are all between 31 and 39 and married. Jean Pierre Calvet is still a bachelor.

the Compagnons travel about 100,000 kilometers a year, every year.

There most requested number?

"The Three Bells" of course. It has sold 1,500,000 records over a ten-year period. They have preformed the song in three languages all over the world.

And this new version is, of course, the first and only version to be made stereophonically!

From Billboard - February 8, 1960: The French male chorus offers a fine program of attractive international standards and folk melodies. Lyrics are in French. Their rich voices blend in listenable harmonies on such fare as "Venus," Hava Naguila," "Les Trois Cloches (The Three Bells)," etc. Stereo is effective. Attractive cover shot of the singers.

Les Trois Cloches

Venus

Carioca, Mon Ami

Guitare Et Tamborine

Melodie Perdue

Margotton

Hava Naguila

Les Tourlourous

Les Gitans

Sarah

Si Tu Vas A Rio

Gondolier