Julien Clerc: Biography

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Birth Name:

Paul-Alain Leclerc

Born:

Oct 4, 1947 in Paris, France

Genres:

Classical Music, Easy Listening Music

Decades Active:

1960's|1970's|1980's|1990's|2000's

Though sometimes dismissed in his native land as little more than a "chanteur de charme" in other words, "a ladies' singer" Julien Clerc in fact enjoyed one of the most successful and longestlived careers in contemporary French pop, shaping the nouvelle chanson aesthetic across a span of decades that began in the shadow of the student rebellions of 1968 and continued well into the following century. Born PaulAlain LeClerc in Paris on October 4, 1947, he was the product of a wealthy bourgeois family. Following his parents' divorce he was sent to live with his father, a highranking UNESCO official, and began studying piano at the age of six. During adolescence Clerc's love of music reached a fever pitch, and he regularly transcribed his favorite songs from the radio.

In time he began writing his own original material, often collaborating with friend Maurice Vallet; under his professional name, Momo, Vallet would continue writing with Clerc for years to follow. However, the singer would not meet his most notable collaborator until 1968, while a student at the Sorbonne. Instead of studying, Clerc spent the majority of his time in area cafés, and while in his favorite haunt, L'Ecritoire, he met Etienne RodaGil, the son of Spanish Republicans who had recently returned to Paris after spending almost a decade abroad in opposition to the conflict in Algeria. Clerc asked RodaGil to add lyrics to one of his original melodies the result was "La Cavalerie," a sardonic protest song that soon earned Clerc a sevenyear recording contract with the PathéMarconi label.

Upon its May 1968 release, "La Cavalerie" made Clerc an overnight superstar, topping the French pop charts and emerging as one of the anthems of the concurrent student rebellions, thanks in large part to its oftquoted lyric "I'll abolish boredom." The followup, "Ivanovitch," also reached number one and so impressed French superstar Gilbert Bécaud that he invited Clerc to open for his upcoming show at Paris' famed Olympia. The singer's third single, 1969's "Yann et les Dauphins," was his third consecutive charttopper, and his selftitled debut LP was also a success, winning the prestigious Prix du Disque de l'Académie Charles Cros and earning critical favor for combining Clerc's Beatlesinspired pop ingenuity and neosymphonic arrangements with RodaGil and Momo's often surreal and reliably complex lyrics.

Clerc was then invited to star in the French production of the hit Broadway musical +Hair, initially refusing the offer but ultimately accepting. Premiering at Paris' Théatre de la Porte Saint Martin on May 31, 1969, the production was a runaway success, as was Clerc's next single, the charttopping "La Californie," released in July. He also made headlines for going public about his burgeoning relationship with French pop ingénue France Gall. Clerc remained with +Hair until February of 1970, when he resigned to resume his recording career; his sophomore LP, Des Jours Entiers à T'Aimer followed three months later, and that December he headlined the Olympia for the first time. A vacation to Argentina inspired the tangolike rhythms of his next single, 1971's "Le Couer Volcan," followed in succession by the RodaGilpenned "Ce N'Est Rien" and "Niagara."

Clerc abruptly shifted gears with 1973's Julien, recorded in London with arranger Bill Shepherd, replacing his longtime collaborator JeanClaude Petit. He returned to Paris in time to begin rehearsals for a new run at the Olympia, with the highlights documented on his 1974 live LP, Julien Clerc avec Vous. Still dismissed in some quarters as little more than a teen idol, Clerc yearned for a more mature image, and in 1975 despondent over the end of his romance with Gall he reteamed with Momo for the bleak, elegiac No. 7, his most critically acclaimed effort to date. Soon after he agreed to a starring role in the film D'Amour et d'Eau Fraîche, and while on the set entered into a relationship with costar MiouMiou that would continue for five years. For his next album, 1976's A Mon Âge et à l'Heure Qu'il Est, he enlisted material from songwriters beyond RodaGil and Momo, working for the first time with Maxime Le Forestier and JeanLoup Dabadie. Le Forestier also authored Clerc's 1978 blockbuster "J'Ai Eu 30 Ans" (written in honor of the singer's 30th birthday), the highlight of his ninth LP, Jaloux. Further bolstered by Dabadie's smash "Ma Preference," the album went on to sell 400,000 copies.

But Clerc's decision to expand his circle of collaborators outside his traditional songwriting partners rankled RodaGil, a situation that snowballed after the singer publicly complained that he was tired of fans asking him to explain RodaGil's complex, often polemical lyrics. Ultimately, they suffered a very public fallingout and did not speak for over a decade, until Clerc declared a truce by attending the funeral of RodaGil's wife, Nadine, in 1992. Nevertheless, in 1979 Clerc agreed to headline the musical +36 Front Populaire, composed by JeanPierre Bourtayre and JeanClaude Petit with lyrics by RodaGil. For a number of reasons the production never made it to the stage, however, although the songs were still recorded and released as a twoLP set.

After traveling to Canada to record his next solo LP, 1980's Clerc Julian, the singer also ended his long professional relationship with Petit, although he renewed ties with Momo for the followup, Sans Entracte, which also featured a pair of contributions from the legendary Serge Gainsbourg. A pair of soldout March 1981 appearances in Lyon made up Clerc's second live album, Vendredi 13. Shortly after, his romance with MiouMiou dissolved, and he channeled his anguish into the starkly intimate Femmes, Indiscrétions et Blasphemes, his first recording for new label Virgin and one of the bestselling LPs of his career.

After meeting horseriding champion Virginie Couperie, whom he married in 1985, Clerc returned to a more optimistic approach for his next LP, AimeMoi. With "Mélissa," coauthored with a new collaborator, David McNeil, he scored one of his biggestever hits, selling over 700,000 copies. Clerc then toured Africa, Canada, and Brazil before taking a 12month break, resurfacing in 1987 with Les Aventures à l'Eau; McNeil again contributed the album's biggest hit, "Hélène." After another lengthy hiatus, he traveled to New York City to work with producer Phil Ramone on 1990's Fais Moi une Place, widely hailed as his most consistent record in years. At the end of 1990 he headlined a production of Prokofiev's +Peter and the Wolf featuring the Radio France Orchestra. With 1992's Utile, Clerc reunited with RodaGil for an album's worth of new collaborative material, and the following year he headlined the Olympia for the first time in close to two decades.

In 1997, he issued Julien, and in 1998 toured the U.S. for the first time as part of an international tour spanning close to three years in all. On 2000's Si J'Étais Elle, Clerc teamed with everyone from supermodel Carla Bruni to FrancoAlgerian author Nina Bouraoui. The twovolume live set Julien Déménage followed in 2002, and the following year he issued Studio, a collection of American pop standards.

- Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide