Identifying French pop song - Summer 1980

[nell]

Anyone up on old French pop??

I was in the South of France in July 1980 for 3 weeks and a particular song was played everywhere - cafes, discos, over the radios in shops-no escape!!

Coming back to Blighty I only ever heard it over here once;the following autumn on a BBC trailer.

Was obviously huge in France (and possibly elsewhere in Europe for all I know), and I would love to track it down.

It was very, very poppy - instantly catchy and quite repetitive; cannot recall the lyrics but I seem to think it was quite 'La la la' ish!! All female harmonies.

Have googled and you-tubed to no avail, sob, you lot are my lost hope. Nell xx

[icynorth]

Re: Identifying French pop song - Summer 1980

Hmmm, not much to go on.
The only French pop songs that come to mind are:

1. Je T'aime (the steamy one)

2. The theme to 'Un Homme et une Femme' (La... La... La... Lalalalala Lalalalala La La La Lalalalala... etc)

3. The theme to Eurotrash (plenty of lalalas in that one)

[Paulos]

Re: Identifying French pop song - Summer 1980

I'm not pretending to know anything about french pop music, but I do know the chorus to the theme tune to the banana splits "la la la" etc and seeing as wikipedia is telling me that as at 6 June 1980 Lio had been at no 1 for 6 weeks with "le banana split" I reckon that this may be a pretty good guess.

DISCLAIMER - as I'm meant to be working and not checking out French pop music I can't actually listen to lio to see if it's the same song of not.

[nell]

Re: Identifying French pop song - Summer 1980

Um - guys I think we may have hit upon a snag here -' La La La' s were perhaps very popular in France in the early 80s..just had a listen to Lio - not my song (or the original sat morning banana split song), but yeah - la la la all the way through!!

Not any of the others either, but thanks anyway

Nell x

[moonvisage]

Re: Identifying French pop song - Summer 1980

France,especially the south of france,is very open to all european pop music,as is France in general.There is a strong chance that the song you heard was not by a French pop group,but by another european Countries pop group.There were,and still are,a lot of Dutch groups from Holland/Netherlands,who had big repetitive hits throughout Europe,especially France.Perhaps it was one of their songs you heard being played over the radio?
Here are a couple of youtube clips,see if the songs ring any bells,or the womens voices and singing styles trigger anything for you.

Babe - Ohh La La I'm Falling

Dolly Dots - Hela Di Ladi Lo

Luv - Canta De La Luna

Luv - You Owe Me

The above hit by Luv,was in 1978,but it may have only reached the South of France in 1980.The actual song you heard,may have been a hit in the seventies,but only reached the southern france regions in 1980,it happens a lot in the music/radio world.It may be a good idea,if you are still looking for the song and none of the above are the song in question,to look for earlier dates,like 1979,1978,1977 etc,as a lot of songs get re released or take a long time to reach other countries.
All the best in your search,and i hope you find the song you are looking for Neil.

[tonyfinster]

Re: Identifying French pop song - Summer 1980

Hmmm, not much to go on.
The only French pop songs that come to mind are:

1. Je T'aime (the steamy one)

2. The theme to 'Un Homme et une Femme' (La... La... La... Lalalalala Lalalalala La La La Lalalalala... etc)

3. The theme to Eurotrash (plenty of lalalas in that one)

the theme to eurotrash is called St Tropez and is sung by Brigitte Bardot

[moonvisage]

Re: Identifying French pop song - Summer 1980

Here is the Brigitte Bardot song St Tropez Neil.

I dare say French radio was like the BBC,and played older hits all the time.Could this be the song you remember Neil?

[nell]

Re: Identifying French pop song - Summer 1980

Hi again, thanks to you both, but no, it's none of those I'm afraid...yeah, it had occurred to me that it may not actually have been French in which case it makes it even harder to track down, but I'll do a bit of European trawling from 78 onwards and see if I get anywhere. Don't think it was too old though, I was 16 at the time as were my mates and we all thought it was brilliant - not at all cheesy or 'eurovisionny', which a lot of the other stuff was!!
Big thanks for your trouble anyway

Nell x

[icynorth]

Re: Identifying French pop song - Summer 1980

the theme to eurotrash is called St Tropez and is sung by Brigitte Bardot

Thanks for that. I just realised 'Un Homme et une Femme' doesn't say "lalalalala" at all - it's more like "rubadubadub".


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bYBn5VJ-ko

[moonvisage]

Re: Identifying French pop song - Summer 1980

is there a chance it could have been the Blondie song - The Attack of the Giant Ants?

I have had an idea,regarding the La La La wording.It could have been Na Na Na,or even,seeing as 1980 was the time synthersizers were becoming popular,a synthesizer sound that sounded like a voice saying La La La.An excellent example of a synthesized voice,is the B52's song - Planet Claire.

Could this B52's song Planet Claire be the song Neil? The B52's and Blondie were absolutely massive in France.

[nell]

Re: Identifying French pop song - Summer 1980

No, neither of those either - I'm not a 100 percent certain that the lyrics were French, but they definitely weren't in English.
Although I think it had lalala in here and there it had quite poppy vocals - very poppy - the kind of thing you'd have heard on the waltzers in 1980 - 'cept in French

Ta anyway
Nell x

[tonyfinster]

Re: Identifying French pop song - Summer 1980

A couple of DJ's on the lounge /chillout scene in the 90's called The Karminsky Experience, put together some compilations of music from the EMI vaults,
There amongst my favourites with a lot of music and themes from the 70's.
Try get hold of them, there well worth it, i found them after i discovered the BBC were using them for background music on a few programmes
They have a couple of Bardot tracks on as well as some obscure tunes that are familiar from back in the day.