Customer Reviews

Swinging Mademoiselles: Groovy French Sounds

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was sorely disappointed with this collection which had bootleg sound quality (vinyl pops etc) and practically no info whatsover regarding these artists. There is even one track credited to Clothilde, which was actually by Cleo. Though they are out of print and much harder to find, I'd recommend that you pass this up and seek out the 2 original vinyl only Swinging Mademoiselle compilations issued on Sasha Monnett records (which also appears to have been the source for at least one of the tracks included here) or any of the 6 CD volumes of Ultra Chicks.

The title of this compilation is a rip off of an earlier and superior compilation by Sasha Monet entiitled Swinging Mademoiselle. Yes the music on this is good, but the unoriginality of this comp is a turn off. On top of that there is wrong information: "Et moi, et toi, et soie" is not a song by Clothilde but by Cleo (a song written by Dutronc and prior to his own hit "Et moi, et moi, et moi." Also, it is Jacqueline Taieb not Tajeb. So as you can see there is something not right here.

But, due to the unavaiability of superior comps, this one will have to do.

This collection is of music that 95% of French people do not know nor have ever heard of though it is superior to non-Franco ears than a lot of the big stars of the day. This stuff was churned out by music industry factory of the 60s that had just found that there was a market for "new music." With the exception of Taieb, Stella, Pilzer and Clothilde the girls no this comp did not write their own songs or had much say in how the material was produced.

Annoyingly, this brazenly rips off the title of the well-known - and much more lovingly compiled - Swinging Mademoiselle compilations. Everything about it is as unoriginal and careless as the borrowed title, from the songs attributed to the wrong artists to the generic, uninformative liner notes. Not to mention that every track is available on other compilations. A listless attempt to cash in on a trend and others' good taste and hard work.

Yes, the music itself is wonderful, but instead go for the superior Femmes De Paris and Pop A Paris compilations, or try to track down the original Swinging Mademoiselle or Ultra Chicks comps, as a previous reviewer suggested.

While the Amazon reviewer called them yeh-yeh girls - which I think of as more folk-pop, the tracks on here are mostly all of the bubblegum pop rock variety - nothing wrong with that if that's what you want but if you're looking for yeh-yeh songs, you'll be disappointed.

The sound quality also leaves a lot to be desired but since there's not a lot of these songs in print avaialble in the US, these will do for now.

If you prefer your French pop more of the Power Pop/Rock variety, you'll be very happy with "Femmes De Paris V.1" The two collections share 3 tracks and the sound quality is WAY WAY better on the Femmes De Paris V.1 CD.

It's still fun and as promised, it is "groovy.' Sound quality could be better.

For those of you who grew up thinking that the 1960s were nothing but protest and pschedelia take a listen to Swinging Mademmiselles: Groovy French Sounds from the 60s. This great little cd shows us that pop was definitely king at least in France. All the tracks are sung by different French chanteuses with a certain girly but knowing sound to their voices. The most bizarre track on the cd is one singer's take on The Who's mid sixties anthem, "Talkin' bout my Generation. The only recognizable thing in this version of the song is the ever catchy refrain, "Talkin' bout my g-g-g-generation." Have fun listening to this very European time capsule of this generation.

When I first found this CD in the French music section I thought this would be a cheesy, cheap, and bad compilation with a poor quality of music. But to my surprise, I found it to be one of the most catchy and melodic French albums I've ever heard. And to think that this is from the 60's! Of course, this album makes me think of the glory days of pop when the Beatles took over the music world, but at the same time it opened me up to a more fresh side to France and French music that I never thought of before. Every song is as catchy, playful, innocent, and sexy as the next. Even though there seems to be very little information about these "ye-ye girls" (the most popular was Brigette Bardot), listening to these songs makes me want to know more about them---and if I can't, simply treasure the gems they've made during the glory days of 60's pop. I can't wait to show this to my French teacher and see what she thinks about it, I bet she will even be surprised at this wonderful treat! If you are into 60's pop music, then surely you will like this album even if you may not be a fan of the French language or can't understand French in general.

Anyone keen on '60's music will find hearing these songs for the first time like opening Christmas presents. Smashing!