SONG: Tous les garcons et les filles
ARTIST: Francoise Hardy
YEAR: 1962
Listen to it here:
THE SONG:
“Tous les garcons et les filles” translates in English to “All the Boys and Girls, and was written and performed by Francoise Hardy. The song describes the feelings of a young person who has never known love and envies the couples that surround her. This song was a massive hit in France where it spent 15 weeks at number one on the charts.
Hardy first performed the song in a telecast in 1962 during a break in programming of the 1962 referendum. The record quickly became a success after that both in France and Italy. Eventually Hardy recorded the song in English, Italian, and German as well.
THE ARTIST:
Francoise Hardy was born in 1944 in Paris under heavy artillery fire. She blamed her anxiety later in life on the stressful conditions of her birth. Hardy’s first rise to prominence was with the song we’re listening to today; one of many sentimental ballads she would be most known for. She was able to record in London often, which allowed her to broaden her sound, and worked with all the big names in French songwriting, Serge Gainsbourg, Patrick Modiano, Michel Berger, etc. Hardy released albums regularly from 1962 all the way through the 2010s.
Aside from music, she also acted in supporting roles in many French films, and was a muse for fashion designers Andre Courreges, Yves Saint Laurent, and Paco Rabanne. She also had a side hustle as an astrologer.
In 2021, Hardy officially retired from performing due to her cancer treatments, but as of this writing she is still alive and fairly healthy.
FACTOID CORNER:
Jimmy Page participated in the recording session as a session musician
KELLY’S REVIEW:
So I’m a recent Françoise fan, only having picked up my first album of hers less than a year ago. You guys know how much of a huge Serge Gainsbourg fan I am, and Serge and Françoise are French songwriting contemporaries. This is super early Françoise and I love that she doesn’t have a remarkable voice, but it’s kind of everything I would expect from a French chanteuse of the 1960s. What I do NOT like is the heavy handed reverb on her voice. I’m longing for the days when producers recognized that a fragile or simple voice is a beautiful thing, untouched on its own. The song has a doo wop feel to it with the 6/8 time signature, punctuated by a very forward rim shot. And if I’m not mistaken, the bass is arpeggiating for a lot of the time? Or is that guitar? It’s a little lost and muddled in the mix. What this song lacks for me that appears in Françoise’s later works is Frenchness. Besides being in French, that’s where the Frenchness ends with this song for me. It’s neither Ya-Ya nor is it that rainy, grey French ennui-type of song where a beautiful but lonely gamine will bemoan her simple, petty life. I like Françoise a lot, the song is ok, I just think that it’s production does itself a bit of a disservice.
HOLLY’S REVIEW:
I’m not at all familiar with this song or with Francoise Hardy, so this is a new one for me! It’s a really interesting mash-up between a lot of American pop music tropes of the time and French ballad singing! Things I like: Francoise sings with such clear diction that you can understand every single word easily and the balance on the recording is good. It feels a little bit like the band decided to try to use as many “Americanisms” as they could come up with. All they need is a some back-up singers doing some doo-wop. I hate the reverb on Hardy’s voice – it feels super unnecessary since her voice seems to be able to handle the job just fine. The drums are pretty close to non-existent except for beat 2 and 4 rim shots and a questionable cymbal roll at the end. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on with the guitar/bass situation. I hear some chunking away on one guitar or possibly ukulele, some rhythm guitar doing some arpeggios and some strumming, and then the bass sounds like it’s doubled? Either up the octave by a THIRD guitar, or there are two basses? I’m not totally sure. The melody itself reminds me of some Buddy Holly or that song “Donna” or other 1950s love song, so it feels a little anachronistic for 1962. But, all in all, it’s maybe a better than average vanilla? I wouldn’t necessarily reach for this album to play over and over, but it’s not awful. It’s fine.
Average mark out of 10:
Holly: 7/10
Kelly: 7.5./10
Other notable versions of this song:
French artist Pomme giving this song a small makeover:
I’m sorry, but how freaking cool are the Eurythmics???
Coeur de Pirate popping it up a bit:
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Link to 1,001 Songs to Hear Before You Die spotify playlist:
Holly & Kelly Music Review 