star 80 - saturday

FRANCOISE HARDY - GIN TONIC
this is the only song that she had a hand in writing on the gin tonic album - and it stands out as one of the best songs too. maybe if she spent less time sitting inside a refrigerator, she'd have more time to write songs.

star 80 - friday

FRANCOISE HARDY -BRANCHE CASSEE
the album 'gin tonic' from 1980 is not one of her finest albums - you only have to check out the first track: 'jazzy retro satanas' to realise that - it sounds like barry manilow does jazz-disco. but there are moments to savour too. like this track, written by j.c. vannier. composer and arranger vannier has worked with serge gainsbourg on 'histoire de melody nelson' as well as other top dolls like jane birkin and leonie.

little star - wednesday

TWINKLE - GOLDEN LIGHTS
this was the follow up song to 'terry'- again she wrote it herself inspired by a personal experience. at the time her boyfriend was in the bachelors and sitting alone in her hotel room looking across to the theatre were they were performing that night - their name up in lights, she created this song about a girlfriend who didn't become a groupie to her pop star boyfriend. a minor hit, it made the top 20 in 65.
this song was passed along to chantal goya who recorded her own wonderful version entitled 'dans la nuit'.

if you've enjoyed the past few posts- i'd highly recommend the 'golden lights' cd- containing all twinkles recordings including her later 70's work which are equally as good (but with a glam edge).

little star - tuesday

TWINKLE - UNHAPPY BOY
she wasn't a fan of gigging around the country and after seeing an 'unhappy boy' at the back of one of her gigs- she related to his unhappiness and wrote this song. the song only appeared on a rare e.p. of lonely singing doll (her english version of france galls 'poupee de cire, poupee de son).

little star - monday

TWINKLE - I NEED YOUR HAND IN MINE
some of you may recognise this song as twiggy also recorded it (twinkle recorded it a year or so earlier) - both versions are great.
twinkle lived among the pop world before she was a pop star herself; she started singing at 14 and writing her own music and this alongside her sisters job as journalist for a pop magazine gave her the opportunities to hang out with the in crowd of the early 60's. Talent, chance and meeting the right people resulted in landing a recording contract by the age of 16!

v.p. - help?

when vanessa paradis first album 'm&j' came out, i'm sure i had a copy that had maxou and coupe coupe in english on - i can no longer find this copy - but my memory isn't playing tricks on me- she really did record them in english (as well as the easily sourced marilyn and john in english.) does anyone have copies of maxou and cut cut brother to share with me?

UPDATE thanks to everyone who sent me copies (mylene, anonymous, patrick and pickeugo). i will post them on here next week!

little star - sunday

TWINKLE - SOLDIER'S DREAM
born lynn ripley, but better known as twinkle, for a brief period in the 60's she was a pop sensation. her 'death disc' 'terry' was a huge hit in 64. After that, she struggled to find the same success which is a shame. so for the next few days, i am going to share with you why twinkle should have been a bigger star. this song (from 69)was unreleased, infact twinkle doesn't even remember it getting past the demo stage.