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1970-1979
1970 : Meeting Claude François In 1970, Alain went back to the Pathé-Marconi studio to record two new songs. The record was made in 1970, but Pathé-Marconi decided not to market it. This record does exist but just cannot be found these days ! In the Pathé-Marconi studio, Alain also recorded several songs in English (which have remained unreleased) as well as 2 songs in German which were on a record issued by Columbia/Emi in Germany. On side A "Ein Rose so wunderschön wie du" and on face B "Liebe auf den erstenblick". In studio he again met Michel Pelay and they decided to compose together. Alain and Michel made some tapes and sent them to a very famous songwriter of those days : Vline Buggy. She "stuck" words on their music. Then they approached several Parisian record companies. They met Claude François who listened to their tapes and quickly got them to sign a recording contract with his own trademark "disques Flèche". He put at their disposal a space on the top floor of his private mansion, Boulevard Exelmans, in Paris. These premises were equipped with keyboards and material for recording sound tracks. Alain and Michel composed some songs for Claude François.
1971 : Compositor for the others and chorist In 1971, Alain Le Govic and Michel Pelay composed together for several singers. In Spring, Paul Anka was in Paris for a few days and thanks to Claude François' record company, he had the opportunity of listening to the tapes of Alain and Michel. Paul Anka was interested by a song and even accepted it. He went back to the States. Three months later, he decided to record a song for the A side of his first single at Bouddha Records where he had just signed. It is called "DO I LOVE YOU" and the music was written by Alain Le Govic and Michel Pelay ! This song entered the American charts. "Do I love you" was taken up again by a female country singer Donna Fargot, and reached number One in the country music charts ! Then Claude François decided to adapt it in French ! The song became "Plus rien qu'une adresse en commun". At the same time, Alain and Michel decided to form a vocals group comprising 4 girls and 4 guys. The girls were called Les Fléchettes as they were also Claude François' vocals. The guys were Alain, Michel and the Costa brothers. That group was a sensation, everybody wanted them ! For over a year, they did vocals for almost all the records made in those days. They were singing for a huge number of people at the rate of 3 sessions a day.
1972 : 1st single of Alain Chamfort In 1972, Claude François proposed to Alain and Michel to make a record based on an idea of his collaborator Jean-Pierre Bourtayre. By a common agreement between Alain and Michel, it was decided that only Alain would sing. Claude François found that the name "Le Govic" sounded too regional and suggested to him that he take a pseudonym. Claude opened a dictionary and at the letter "c", selected 2 or 3 names, Clémenceau, Chateaubriand … Claude François chose CHAMFORT (the name of a former French writer, well known for his maxims). Alain started to record in Spring 72, the work being supervised by Claude François. Alain Chamfort's first single was released in April by Flèche. As Alain refused to have his photo on the cover, it was decided to put a drawing as an illustration of each song on both sides of the cover. On side A, there was the song "DANS LES RUISSEAUX" composed by Alain Chamfort and Michel Pelay. Michel Pelay, Claude François and even Michel Drucker, a still famous TV presenter, did the vocals ! The song on the B side was "Le train de Moscou". On 24th May 1972, Alain had his first prime time TV show with the name Chamfort in the program "Avec le Coeur" produced by Claude François and introduced by Claude François and Michel Drucker. The record " Dans les ruisseaux" sold around 80 000 copies. In September, Claude François became the editing manager of the teenage magazine "Podium"; this explains why Alain used to appear in it quite often. In Autumn 1972, Alain Chamfort's second single was released. Side A : "SIGNE DE VIE, SIGNE D'AMOUR". Side B : "Je t'appelle mélancolie". This time, Chamfort accepted having his photo taken for the cover !
1973 : 1st Summer hit : "L'amour en France", 1st tour, 1st album, 1st Olympia in Paris From February to April 1973, "Signe de vie, signe d'amour" climbed into the chart and 350 000 copies of the record were sold ! In May/June, a new single was released by Flèche : "L'AMOUR EN FRANCE" and it became the smash hit of Summer 1973. It climbed into the top 10 hits from June to September 1973. 500 000 copies of this record were sold! That summer Alain took his songs on tour with Claude François, singing in the first part of his shows (a set of 40 dates within two months). But as time went by, Alain organized himself independently of Claude François and formed his own group of musicians to accompany him in his shows. Alain engaged Gérard Louvin as a manager-impresario. For 3 years (73,74 & 75) Alain and Gérard were very busy with a nationwide tour. In October, the 4th single was released : "JE PENSE A ELLE, ELLE PENSE A MOI". This song scored in the chart from November 73 to January 74 and was a great success ! At the end of year 1973, the first album of Chamfort was released. It contained 12 songs : 7 from the previous singles and 5 new ones. In November 1973, Alain Chamfort was on the cover of the monthly magazine "Mademoiselle âge tendre" ! From December 11th to 25th, 1973 Alain Chamfort performed in the famous Paris music temple l'OLYMPIA.
1974 : "Adieu mon bébé chanteur" In March, the single "LAMOUR N'EST PAS UNE CHANSON" was released. In April, Alain took part in the French song festival in Maastricht Netherlands. In July 1974, a new single was issued : "ADIEU MON BEBE CHANTEUR" which was a smash hit ! From August 15 to October 15, this song climbed into the charts. In July and August, Chamfort toured with Claude François (30 dates). In October 74, for the first time, Alain Chamfort alone was on the front page of the famous magazine for teenagers "Salut les copains". At the end of 1974, a new single was released : "MADONA, MADONA" (side A) which was also a chart hit (side B : "Un coin de vie").
1975 : "Madona, Madona" In 1974 and 1975, Chamfort went to Japan 5 or 6 times with Gérard Louvin. In this country, Alain was known as "the little prince of the French song". Around 10 singles and 5 albums were released in Japan. He took part in TV shows and performed many recitals. He even sang the jingle of a TV advertisement for cosmetics company Kanebo, which would become a song. Very often broadcast on TV, this song called "BONJOUR OMEMESAN" was the biggest success of Chamfort in Japan. It is still unpublished in France because it was released only in Japan. Just before Summer, a new single was released by Flèche : "LA MUSIQUE DU SAMEDI" which was again a big hit ! It stayed four months in the chart where it reached number 2 ! On July 12, Chamfort took part in the Tokyo song festival where he sang "La musique du samedi" in a stadium filled with more than 6000 people. He won the third prize behind the States and England ! In August, Alain Chamfort also went to Canada because in this country the song "UN COIN DE VIE" was a "gold record". An album was especially published for Canada. At the end of 1975, the 9th and last single was released by Flèche : "LE TEMPS QUI COURT". which was a rework of "Could it be magic" by the American singer and musician Barry Manilow. But Claude François disagreed with the choice of this song. "Le temps qui court" proved not to be a real success… At the end of the year 1975, Flèche published the first Alain Chamfort compilation album.
1976 : 2sd album "Mariage à l'essai" The recording contract with the Flèche records expired in March 1976. Alain Chamfort and Claude François quarrelled for good. Then Alain left the Flèche record company as well as Claude François, and took with him Michel Pelay and Gérard Louvin. In Spring Alain Chamfort signed a new contract with another record company : CBS which granted him complete freedom of artistic choice. He built up his own record publishing company A.C.O Music (Alain Chamfort Organisation) which would be managed by Gérard Louvin until 1982. In Autumn 76, Alain's second new album was released, and the pictures on the cover were taken in his own farm in Septeuil (close to Paris). It included 10 songs composed by Alain Chamfort and Michel Pelay, the centrepiece was : "MARIAGE A L'ESSAI".
1977 : 3rd album "Rock'n rose" In April 1977, Véronique Sanson invited Alain Chamfort to join her in Los Angeles for vocals as she was recording her new album "Hollywood". For period of three weeks, Alain discovered the American studios : the quality of the musicians, their way of playing, how seriously they used to work with a great deal of energy and the professionalism of the sound engineers. That was why Alain decided to record his next album in Los Angeles with Californian musicians. The C.B.S directing manager agreed to do so. In the Summer 77, Alain left for Los Angeles. He chose the pianist arranger David Foster who contacted the Porcaro brothers, who in 1978 would form the well known group Toto. Alain also chose the trumpet player Steve Madaïo. Then Alain decided to contact Serge Gainsbourg, the famous singer and songwriter, because he wanted him to write some text for his music. Gainsbourg listened to several tapes, liked them and agreed to write all the lyrics for the next album. Alain recorded the vocals in Paris, then went to London with Michel Pelay as well as Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg to do the sound mixing of the album. The album "ROCK'N ROSE" was released at the end of Autumn and contained 9 songs, the main ones being : "Joujou à la casse", "Rock'n Rose", "Lucette et Lucie", "Baby-Lou".
1978 : "Seul à la fin" In Autumn 1978, a new single was released : "SEUL A LA FIN" and "DANSE, DANSE COMME CA". These two songs were recorded and mixed in London in June 1978. Alain also made his first video clip produced and financed by himself.
1979 : 4th album "Poses" In Spring 1979, Alain worked on new songs together with Jean-Noël Chaléat. They went back to Los Angeles for recording. They were responsible for all the arrangements and artistic achievement. Once more they called on to Californian musicians. Alain again contacted Serge Gainsbourg who wrote 3 tracks : "Démodé", "Bébé polaroïd" and "Manureva". It should be noted that on December 3rd, 1978, during the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, the famous sailor Alain Colas was lost at Caribbean sea, aboard his sailing ship "Manureva". The first text which Gainsbourg had written was called : "Adieu California". Alain had recorded this first version, but he did not much like the words. So he asked Gainsbourg urgently to write alternative lyrics; that was how Serge had the idea of "Manureva" related to Alain Colas, which in the end suited Alain Chamfort. He travelled back to Los Angeles to record again the song which finally became the famous "MANUREVA". Jane Birkin wrote the English lyrics of "Let me try again". Jay Alanski wrote the text of "Palais royal" and "Toute la ville en parle". Jean-Michel Rivat wrote "Géant" inspired by Clémentine, Alain's daughter who was born on 11th May 1977. The single "MANUREVA" was released on September 15th, 1979 and became a real smash hit ! It topped number 1 in the chart all through Winter. This recordn sold, according to different sources, between 750 000 and 1 million copies. The album "POSES" was released in Autumn.
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