Francoise Hardy - Vogue Years

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Free Music Notes for Vogue Years

Free Music Review: Super Overview of 1960s Career
Hit: 5 Stars

I was lured to this set by her association with British producer/songwriter Charles Blackwell who handled her recordings in 1964, 1965 and early 1966. Blackwell's most well-known accomplishment is probably P.J. Proby's first album, but he also arranged a number of early Joe Meek productions and produced many of the better records by admittedly obscure singer Samantha Jones. Blackwell's productions with Francoise Hardy do not disappoint, although Samantha Jones' "Don't Come Any Closer" still pips Hardy's French equivalent "Non Ce N'est Pas Un Reve." For that matter, Mina's original Italian version of "Se Telefonando" trumps Ms. Hardy's "Je Changerais D'avis." But both of those competing performances figure among the very best work by their respective artists, so this is no dishonor; it just shows the fine quality of the material used by Ms. Hardy when not doing her own. She even records a French-language version of one of the very few songs written by Dusty Springfield ("C'est le Passe" or "Once Upon a Time").

Bearing in mind that I bought this set for the Blackwell recordings (nearly half of the tracks on here), I found the work with producers Mickey Baker and Jacques Denjean to be equally effective. Baker created a Gaullic Spector sound which could pass for Charles Blackwell himself (but Baker worked with Hardy before Blackwell did). Following a ho-hum series of recordings under the auspices of Johnny Harris, Denjean created a more muscular but still balladic sound for Hardy's songs that seems much more recent than 1967. Her "Voila" from this period is positively timeless. Amazon lists a couple of albums from 1967 for Ms. Hardy. On the strength of her three 1967 tracks here, I will be eagerly buying them.

The early material pre-dating 1964 does less for me but there is the campy spy thriller theme soundalike "Le Temps de L'amour." And the first track "Tous les Garcons et les Filles" is charmingly French.

I know no French, and even so the terrific songs, arrangements and delivery serve up ample entertainment. And fifty tracks for less than $17 is very good value.

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