From Rolling Stones to Despacito, the ingredients that make a "summer hit"

What thread connects Aline and Despacito ? The two songs are summer hits, musical objects of all fantasies, with a rich history. This expression, "the summer hit" was invented in the 1950s by Boris Vian, a genius jack-of-all-wagon whose centenary is celebrated this year. With the necessary hindsight for any honest judgment, Alain Pozzuoli, co-author with Jean-Marie Potiez of 101 summer hits , published by Editions du Layeur, nevertheless emphasized to AFP that "in the spirit of 'author of L'Écume des jours , it was a little derogatory, poor quality music'.

Read also: Pierre Delanoë: the greatest successes of the man with 5000 songs

A musical thing that stays on the ear

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 Dictionnaire des Ye-ye .
" 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 .

Read also: 50 years ago, As usual became My Way

Claude François, a tube maker

There are, however, " makers ", authors or composers who have found success behind the decades. Lollipops , sung by France Gall (1966) - who had not understood at the time the allusion to fellatio - and Je t'aime ... Moi non plus (1969) - charged with an unequivocal eroticism this time - come from the same pen, Serge Gainsbourg.

La Maladie d'amour 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, for that matter - as usual , popularized by Claude François and then made legend with the My Way version. by Frank Sinatra.

It is also he who contributes to the construction of the Lakes of Connemara by Michel Sardou (winter success) whose theme, he had explained to AFP at the end of 2019, comes from a problem of synthesizer, hastily released from the trunk of his car ... With sequencers of " violins sounding like bagpipes " .

The Lambada , a marketing product?

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, " says Alain Pozzuoli. The Italian authors of the first version of The Indian Summer (1975) thus first had the idea of ​​proposing it to Claude François. But as " nobody dares to wake Mr. Clo-Clo for fear of being fired immediately " on the morning of D-Day, the song goes to Joe Dassin, can we read in 101 hits of the summer .

The story of summer hits " loses his 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.

Despacito , a “tube” of the 21st century (2017)