Customer Reviews

Est-Ce Que Tu Le Sais: Best of

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Born in Bulgaria in 1944, Sylvie Vartan's music career has long been the object of ridicule. She has been accused of being an inferior performer who couldn't sing and only became famous because of her husband, fellow musician Johnny Hallyday. Even so, despite her critics, her career has enjoyed a curious longevity, still surviving to this day. In my opinion, this CD proves Sylvie's merit. Though nothing especially deep, the light, bubbly, bouncy rhythms are catchy, and rather amusing, something you can really tap your feet to. When you abandon all need for aesthetics and meaning and just let yourself have some fun, Sylvie Vartan actually becomes a real treat.

Nobody could claim that Bulgarian-born Sylvie Vartan is a classy singer, but she has had a very long career, much to the surprise of some of her critics. It would be very easy to pour scorn on her music, but there is room for all types of music in my collection and this is a great CD in its own way.

This collection contains a lot of covers of British and American songs translated into French, including What'd I say (Ray Charles), Bye bye love (Everly brothers), The locomotion (Little Eva), Rhythm of the rain, So long baby (Del Shannon), My whole world is falling down, The game of love (Wayne Fontana), Pretty woman (Roy Orbison), Sloop John B (Beach boys) and I can't help myself (Four tops).

There are also plenty of original songs, but this is not an album to get deeply serious about. It is sixties pop at its most lightweight - but there are times when this is just the kind of music I want to listen to.

I'm a huge French pop fan. Sylvie Vartan simply didn't have the canon of songs like France Gall's or Francoise Hardy's. Her singing was fair. Even Brigitte Bardot, who could barely sing, had top notch material written by Serge Gainsbourg. Sylvie's material, on this CD anyway, isn't so hot.

This cd contains a collection of songs by Sylvia Vartan that cover the peak of her career, a bargain really. Some of the French music in the 60s was heavily influenced by the US scene and Sylvia Vartan was no exception. She was HUGE in France and still remembered - yet barely heard of here. In America we are more familiar with acting of her son Michael (Alias). More people should try out some of her singing and this cd is a great place to start. I highly recommend this collection and some of the songs included might become your favorites as well.