I cannot believe that this wonderous single has passed me by for so many years. I find it hard to believe that there are so many compilations featuring so many of the french YeYe singing brigade and this magnificent 45 has been almost completely overlooked. Yet it happened.

I am talking about Charlotte Walters one and only 45 - Angel of Sin / Fleurs de Pavots Bleus. Two sides of stunning psychedelic pop. Perhaps the fact that she only released this one single has helped her to remain in obscurity.

What about the music itself. Fleeurs de pavots bleus is a intreguing collision of exotic indian sounds and french pop. Her singing is consistantly haunting through the song backed by tabla with a sparse spooky organ woodwind and it is punctuated with brief bursts of upbeat percussion brass and a touch almost traditional YeYe backing shouts. 2 minutes and 9 seconds of a most incredible trip.
Angel of Sin on the other hand is far more upbeat. It lacks the influnce 0f indian sounds in its make up (yet lyrically talks about a return to Vishnu) It is characterised by a barrage of whispered and echoing backing vocals which pull it away from being a traditional pop song towards psychedelic territory, especially in the whirling ending. Interestingly this song was written by Charlottes younger sister Chloe.

Both sides have great production and orchestrated thoughtfully by Hubert Rostaing.

Needless to say when you have made only one 45 there is not much information out there. But thanks to you tube you can find a clip of Chloe 40 years on playing the guitar part of Angel of Sin.

There is also a clip of the song on you tube complete with a comment from Charlotte herself
“Chloe Walters, composer of 'Angel of Sin', deserves the credit for this song, I sang it. “ she says modestly.

Daniel (if I remember your name well),

I am preparing two comps of french forgotten songs (male & female) from the 60's-70's and "Angel of sin" is in. Great song, I agree.

This is the track listing of the female comp:

01 Catherine Lara - Mais qu'y a-t-il au fond de l'eau
02 Charlotte Leslie - Monsieur Harrison
03 Charlotte Walters - Angel Of Sin
04 Jacqueline Taieb - Le coeur au bout des doigts
05 Zoé - Zoé
06 Léonie - Wahala Manitou
07 Anne-Marie Nebot - Le vent malin
08 Jiji - La Fusée
09 Estella Blain - Solitude
10 Joanna - Rêverie Anglaise
11 Christel Ruby - Ruby
12 Edwige - Je Suis Juillet
13 Zouzou - Petit garçon
14 Christine Demars - Et rêver
15 Christine Moncenis & Serge Franklin - 1001 nuits
16 Edwige - Mon rêve certain
17 Julie Saget - Une robe en plexiglass
18 Léonie - John Lennon
19 Les Emeraudes - Tu ne vois qu'elle
20 Chantal Kelly - Je sais bien

I don't know how to share these comps (Dropbox or else) with artwork (it was more expansive but easier in the good ol' times of CDR... ), and I don't know if it is of interest for somebody here, but as it is almost finished it should be silly to keep it only for myself...

My top 7 French singles/songs-

Santa Maria - Elle et Donne moi ton coeur et ta fleur
Two great sides to this 1970 single by lads with all the right gear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8LDRSzad5Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFu6QSMgk8A

Monty - Vivre D'Amour
Fresh faced Monty abandons his comfortable MOR origins for this OTT orch-psych blast with bells and whistles on (literally).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37S2zkfVGK8

Claude François - Reste (Version Longue)
The man who wrote My Way delivers the best ever cover of Beggin and leaves you wanting more. And nobody could dance like Cloclo!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD1hOU6Zktc

F R DAVID Sir Geoffrey le sauveur
There’s just something about the Bee Gees in French.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3LdxWpv4Qk

Marie Laforet - Marie Douceur Marie Colere (Paint in Black)
Just for the way she sings it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94e6aZiTRE0

Les Irresistibles -my year is a day
Yes I know they are American but they lived in France and love the motors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gshKzMXx0Zc

Thanks Mr b for your reccomendations. A number of those songs (4 to be exact) were new to me. I especially enjoyed listening to Donne moi ton coeur et ta fleur.

I have a CD of Les Irresistibles and it is a fine piece of work with some really nice songs. In fact if my memory is correct one of them made it to a CDR I made (the life cycle of pop sike) that I gave away many years back.

Lastly I have to say that that video of claude Francois is worth it just for the dancing alone. I am not easily impressed by dance moves but Michael Jackson had nothing on him.

And it's great to hear from you again Philippe, I for one would love to hear your comp. Keep us informed. Things have changed a lot and I have yet to figure out the drop boxes and that side of things too, so you are not alone. One day.

To my ears, there is a very definite and specific Parisian orchestrated studio pop sound that many late 60s French 45s have, As far as I know this is not something that has been picked up on and compiled in this way, unlike the ye-ye singles, although many of the songs do feature on popsike or French pop compilations more generally. Off the top of my head examples are:

Les Irresistibles - My Year Is A Day
Le Couer - Bye Bye City
Herbert Leonard - Cher Monsieur Fantasy
Ronnie Bird - Sad Soul / Raining In The City (on a Fading Yellow volume)

The orchestration and arrnagements are beuatiful. Try listening to those above on Youtube or Spotify etc and you might get a feel for it. Philippe, what do you think?

PM

I would love to hear your comp also Phillipe when it's done

Its funny you're talking about some French music,i just received the Stella cd issued by RPM,some really good stuff on this,a real mixture of sounds too......but back to your compilation Phillipe,im another one who would very much like to hear your comp.Thank you.

Le Couer's Bye Bye City came on my itunes shuffle the other night there as it happens, from Beat Bespoke 4 and it's splendidness was noted!

"My year is a day" was the first single I bought in my whole life (I still have it) so it's definitely one of my "madeleine de Proust" (memory trigger to be less pedantic... ). Music was written by William Sheller, a great pop composer of melodies.

The Ronnie Bird's titles are great too. But for me, it's not so French because sung in English...

"Bye bye City" is excellent. Le Coeur (the heart) was the first band of Pierre Groscolas who had some success with his solo singles in the 70's.

I am not fan at all of Herbert Leonard. Good voice but he did mostly covers and his 80's career is an unforgettable nightmare.

I can't say tit for tat my 5 or 10 favourites songs in French but there will be no surprise: Polnareff, Dutronc, Gainsbourg, "Chimène" by René Joly...

I'll see in a few days how I can transfer the two comps I've done: WeTransfer or else... I am a little bit lost with all this.

Hi Philippe,
I would also love to hear your compilations when ready. The two email addresses I have for you seem to be defunct, so amasking here, thanks in advance!

Regards
Paul

My favourite French track is Asmodai by Tac Poum Systeme. Don't know what they're saying or what it means and its from 1971, but it sounds like a late 60s classic piece of freakbeat.
Also like the Le Couer track and I'm guessing we're only talking French and not French Canadian as otherwise someone would have mentioned the fantastic French Revolution(La Revolution Francaise)-Nine To Five.

As for French Canadian always liked this-

Bruno Leys - Dans la galaxie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlR8T684KyY

I included the great Le Coeur "Réve" on the 2011 vinyl ONLY Fading Yellow, 300 copies made, including trax only avaible here, Get it if you can, great stuff!

A1 –Gary Benson Back In Love Again
A2 –Los Iberos Nightime
A3 –Ferrari's, The Miss Cathy Jones
A4 –Shanes, The Talkin' To Myself
A5 –Together Henry's Coming Home
A6 –Candy Choir, The Love Me Princess
A7 –Residents, The Gabrielle
A8 –Jay Five, The My Angel
B1 –Candy Choir, The No Grey Skies
B2 –Dave Justin For Brandy
B3 –Pol & Paul How Is Life, Mrs Ann?
B4 –Barry Fantoni Nothing Today
B5 –Robbie Curtice* / Tom Payne The Things I Do For Pamela Demo only
B6 –Cats Eyes I Thank You Marianne
B7 –Philip John Filby David McKenzie
B8 –Le Coeur Réve

Another psych classic that hasn't been mentioned, although without checking I don't know if they were French or Canadian. Les 5 Gentlemen-LSD 25.

"Dis-nous Dylan" is excellent too. A comp of les 5 Gentlemen is worth having.

They were from Corsica, living in Marseille (south of France). They tried to have a career in England and Italy under the name of Darwin's Theory.

Hi Phillippe,

I would be very interested in your comp. I'll even send you some CDRs and postage to Tokyo and whatever the price for lobour (of love) is. Your Pop Perles is was superb I'm a big fan of French chanson.psyche and when I play this stuff in a friend's French restaurant they go all misty eyed but mostly "Ce quoi cette musique?" brilliant
I'd appreciate a copy to spread the word

Hi JJ,

Is that The Residents? on your comp because I noticed Barry Fantoni a part of Frank Zappa's world

Just noticed Le Couer single is the opening cut on the Lion Productions comp
Groove Club no 1 La Confisirie Magique.
Will be picking that up next month.

My comps will be ready soon (male is OK, female in progress).

I'll let a message on the forum. I have a Dropbox count so I hope it's OK for other people to download...

I really like the early Ange stuff, quite like F Hardy, Mirelle M & other chanson stuff. I think Piaf 7 her cronies gave French popular music a head start on some other countries.
Phillipe's comp looks interesting, quite a few new ones for me