Laurent Voulzy - Rockollection - 1977
Chanson
Wikipédia:
Lucien Voulzy (French pronunciation: [lysjɛ̃ vulzi], born 18 December 1948), better known as Laurent Voulzy ([loʁɑ̃ vulzi]), is a French singer-songwriter, composer and musician.
Voulzy was born in Paris, France. He originally led the English-pop-influenced Le Temple de Vénus before joining Pascal Danel as guitarist from 1969 to 1974. However, he is best known for his collaborative songwriting efforts with singer-songwriter Alain Souchon and his solo singing career, which spanned several successful singles and albums.
Voulzy had an international hit with the song "Rockollection". The French lyrics were interspersed with some lines from classic rock hits after the chorus.
His major hits also include the singles "Paradoxal Système" (which reached the French Top 10), "Le Soleil Donne" – sung in French, English and Spanish – and the double "Belle-Île-en-Mer, Marie-Galante"/"Les Nuits Sans Kim Wilde" ("Nights without Kim Wilde"; a song inspired by the chart-topping English singer). Other songs entered the French charts ("Bopper en larmes", "Le coeur Grenadine", "Désir, désir", etc.).
Voulzy also enjoys success in Belgium, Switzerland and Québec; and although being a French artist, his songs often contain multiple languages (including lyrics in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, etc.).
In 2005, he co-produced and co-composed Nolwenn Leroy's second album Histoires Naturelles.
Voulzy had a huge hit with his album La Septième Vague which reached number one in 2006. Featured on the album is a cover of the Everly Brothers hit "All I Have to Do Is Dream", recorded as a duet with Irish singer Andrea Corr. The song was released as a single and was also included on The Corrs' greatest hits album Dreams: The Ultimate Corrs Collection.
He recorded in 2007 a duet with the French guitarist Jean-Pierre Danel on his hit album Guitar Connection 2. The song hit the French charts at No. 7 in 2008. For his 2011 album, Lys and Love, Voulzy recorded a duet on the song "Ma seule amour" with English singer Roger Daltrey of The Who. In 2007, He toured France.
Song:
In April 1977, all the French youth recognized themselves in Laurent Voulzy's Rockollection, which became one of the great hits of the year. Flashback on the history of this title whose music was to be used for another song.
If the artistic collaborations between Laurent Voulzy and Alain Souchon have allowed the latter to record several hits such as J'ai dix ans in 1974 and Bidon in 1976, it was not until the following year that it was Laurent Voulzy's turn to experience success and enter the light with Rockollection. The story of this song, whose originality is to mix nostalgic verses in French with covers of great Anglo-Saxon standards of the sixties, begins one evening in the summer of 1974.
At that time, Laurent Voulzy was having dinner at a friend's house and had fun improvising a song about the tribulations of a friend named Daniel. A year later, while Laurent Voulzy was working on a demo for an American artist named Anne Calvert, who sings under the pseudonym of Anne C. Sheridan, the melody imagined during the dinner, one year earlier, comes back in his memory. Anne then wrote a song in English called Thriller, about a girl who is chased down the street by an angry-looking character. In the end, this song never saw the light of day and Laurent put his score back in a drawer.
Two years later, when he was preparing his sixth single as a singer, Laurent Voulzy thought about this music and decided to recycle it to tell his teenage memories by illustrating them with musical extracts. This idea came to him while listening to Claude François' hit: Cette année-là. At the time, Laurent thought it was a pity that Claude had not included extracts of the songs from 1962 that he talks about in this hit.
At the beginning, Laurent Voulzy had written a text on his music himself. He made Alain Souchon listen to his song and he found the idea nice but the text not so good... And, in one afternoon, Alain rewrote five verses. The text was initially entitled Recollection in reference to the English word which means, to remember something. Finally, Alain has the idea to create a neologism by associating rock with collection to give birth to Rockollection.
The studio work on this title lasts nearly two months. Laurent Voulzy, who believed in this song, did not want to leave anything to chance. To give the song a club atmosphere with applause and exchanges between young teenagers, he had high school students from Le Perreux in the Paris region come to the studio.
If one can think that the nine extracts of English songs which punctuate the title, were chosen in a rigorous and reflected way, it is nothing like that. On the contrary, the choice was totally arbitrary and was made in the urgency, the very day of the final recording!
The 45 rpm record was released by RCA, at the beginning of April 1977. It lasts 11 minutes and 40 seconds and occupies both sides of the record. It is the artistic director of Laurent Voulzy, at RCA, Bob Socquet, who had insisted that the singer lengthen the song.
The radio programmers broadcast only the first side, which quickly became a huge success and reached number 1 in the hit parade on May 6, 1977. The success of Rockollection largely exceeds the French borders. The title is ranked N°1 in Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Quebec and Italy. Laurent Voulzy records an English version, with which he obtains a gold record in Spain and Scandinavia. He also records a Brazilian version, in which the title Gloria is replaced by Guantanamera.
Integral song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTWPSioRZHY
On a tous dans l'cœur une petite fille oubliée
Une jupe plissée queue d'cheval à la sortie du lycée
On a tous dans l'cœur un morceau de feraille usée
Un vieux scooter de rêve pour faire le cirque dans le quartier
Et la p'tite fille chantait (x2)
Un truc qui m'colle encore au cœur et au corps
Everybody's doing a brand new dance now
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
I know you'll get to like it
If you give it a chance now
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
On a tous dans l'cœur le ticket pour Liverpool
Sortie de scène hélicoptère pour échapper à la foule
Excuse-me Sir mais j'entends plus Big Ben qui sonne
Les scarabées bourdonnent c'est la folie à London
Et les Beatles chantaient (x2)
Un truc qui m'colle encore au cœur et au corps
It's been a hard day's night, and I've been working like a dog
It's been a hard day's night, yeah yeah yeah yeah
A quoi ça va me servir d'aller m'faire couper les tifs
Est-ce que ma vie sera mieux une fois qu'j'aurais mon certif'
Betty a rigolé devant ma boule à zéro
Je lui dis si ça te plait pas
T'as qu'à te plaindre au dirlo
Et je me suis fait virer
Et les Beach Boys chantaient
Un truc qui m'colle encore au cœur et au corps
Ca f'sait
Round round get around
I get around
Yeah
Get around round round I get around
Get around
Get around get around
On a tous dans l'cœur des vacances à Saint-Malo
Et des parents en maillot qui dansent chez Luis Mariano
Au " Camping des flots bleus " je me traîne des tonnes de cafard
Si j'avais bossé un peu je me serais payé une guitare
Et Saint-Malo dormait
Et les radios chantaient
Un truc qui m'colle encore au cœur et au corps
Gloria, Gloria, Gloria, Gloria
Au café de ma banlieue t'as vu la bande à Jimmy
Ça frime pas mal, ça roule autour du baby
Le pauvre Jimmy s'est fait piquer chez le disquaire, c'est dingue
Avec un single des Stones caché sous ses fringues
Et les loulous roulaient
Et les cailloux chantaient
Un truc qui m'colle encore au cœur et au corps
I can't get no, I can't get no, satisfaction. yeah! yeah! yeah!
We all have in the heart a small forgotten girl
With a ponytail, dressed in a pleated skirt at the exit of the lycée
We all have in the heart a bunch of used scrap metal
An old fantasised scooter to clown around in the neighbourhood
And the little girl sang
Something that still sticks to my heart and body
Everybody's doing a brand new dance now
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
I know you'll get to like it
If you give it a chance now
(Come on baby, do the loco-motion)
We all have in the heart the ticket to Liverpool
Leaving the stage in an helicopter to escape to the crowd
Excuse-me Sir but I can't hear the ringing of Big Ben anymore
The beetles buzz , it's craziness down in London
And the Beatles sang
Something that still sticks to my heart and body
It's been a hard day's night, and I been working like a dog
It's been a hard day's night, yeah yeah yeah yeah
What's the point in cutting my hairs ?
Is my life going to be better once I got my Certif ?
Betty laughed when she saw the result
I told her " If it doesn't please you
You can complain to the school manager ! "
And I got fired ...
And the Beach Boys sang
Something that still sticks to my heart and body
It was like ...
Round round get around
I get around
Yeah
Get around round round I get around
I get around
Get around round round I get around
We all have in the heart some holidays in Saint-Malo
And your parents in swimsuit, dancing on a Luis Mariano's song
At the Flot-Bleus Camping , I only receive refusals
If only I worked a bit , I could have buy a guitar
And Saint-Malo was sleeping
And the radio sang
Something that still sticks to my heart and body
Gloria, Gloria, Gloria, Gloria
At the café of my suburb , you see the Jimmy's tribe
They're all showing off around the table soccer
The poor Jimmy got caught in the record shop , it's crazy !
With a single of the Rolling Stones hidden under his clothes
And Jagger was rolling
And the Stones sang
Something that still sticks to my heart and body
I can't get no, I can't get no, satisfaction. yeah! yeah ! yeah !
Thanks to Thunderroad on Lyricstranslate.