AFP, published on Monday June 29, 2020 at 1:43 p.m.
What relationship between “Aline” and “Despacito”? The two pieces are summer hits, musical objects of all fantasies, with a rich history.
The term “summer hit” was coined in the 1950s by Boris Vian, the all-round genius whose centenary is celebrated this year. “In his mind it was a bit pejorative, poor quality music”, slips to AFP Alain Pozzuoli, co-author with Jean-Marie Potiez of “101 hits of summer”, published by Editions du Layeur .
Is there a mold for this tube? “We could say a not too complicated melody, simple lyrics and a + gimmick +, a musical thing that stays in the ear”, advances Alain Pozzuoli who also signed “Le dico du disco” (already with Jean-Marie Potiez) and the “Dictionary of Ye-Yes”.
“But these are only ingredients, it does not work every time”, he nuances, confirmed by Jean-Marie Potiez: “fortunately, no, there is no recipe”, insists the latter with AFP.
You only have to see the diversity of successes listed in their work. No relation indeed between “Satisfaction”, electrical discharge of the Rolling Stones in 1965, “When a Man Loves a Woman”, of Percy Sledge, prototype of slow in 1966 and … “The black eagle” of Barbara in 1970. The disturbing texture of this last title will also take on its full meaning only much later, when the exegetes make the connection with incest, revealed by the singer in her posthumous memories.
– Makers –
There are, however, “makers”, authors and / or composers that have been found behind successes over the decades. “Les sucettes”, sung by France Gall (1966) – who had not grasped the allusion to fellatio at the time – and “Je t’aime … Moi non plus” (1969) – in charge of ‘an unequivocal eroticism this time – come from the same pen, Serge Gainsbourg.
“La maladie d’amore” sung in 1973 by Michel Sardou was composed by Jacques Revaux. Little-known by the general public, it is the architect of timeless classics that made the charts tremble – not only in summer, moreover – such as “As usual”, popularized by Claude François then passed into legend with the version “My Way” by Frank Sinatra.
It is also he who contributes to the construction of Michel Sardou’s “Lacs du Connemara” (winter success) whose theme, he explained to AFP at the end of 2019, comes from a problem with the synthesizer, released at the looking forward to the trunk of his car … With sequencers of “fiddles sounding like bagpipes”.
– “Luck factor”
So there are accidents. “Yes, there is a chance factor, B sides spotted by DJs, songs originally planned for an interpreter and from which another inherits”, develops Alain Pozzuoli.
The Italian authors of the first version of “L’été Indien” (1975) thus first had the idea of proposing it to Claude François. But as “nobody dares to wake Mr. Cloclo for fear of being fired on the spot” on the morning of D-Day, the song goes to Joe Dassin, can we read in “101 hits of summer”.
The story of summer hits “loses its fantasy” regrets Jean-Marie Potiez – also an Abba specialist – when TV or radio stations club a title to “impose it with advertising marketing” like the “Lambada” (1989). But the magic still works from time to time when unformatted titles foil forecasts, such as “Sodade” by Cesaria Evora (1992) or “Seven Seconds” by Youssou N’Dour and Neneh Cherry (1994).
In “this particular year”, marked by the pandemic, as Alain Pozzuoli says, the advent of a summer hit, “associated with a period where we can let go”, as Jean-Marie Potiez notes , would just be the sign of a life taking its course.
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