It is a novelty… which is not really one. For the past few days, the duo Axelle Red and Ycare have seduced the radios with "A toi", cover of the famous track by Joe Dassin. The track will be part of an album planned for the fall and in which Jérémy Frérot, Kids United, Aldebert, Trois Cafés Gourmands, les Frangines will participate. A tribute to the singer who died forty years ago, on August 20, 1980… Sony, the record company of the artist who has just reissued a best of 3 CDs and 59 titles, will thus salute the memory of the musician in the white suit and with a deep voice that liked to define himself as “American by birth, but French at heart”.
A talented guitarist, he was able to tint French songs with a hint of folklore and rhythms from across the Atlantic between blues and country. And even if they are far from having known Joe Dassin, struck down at 41 by a heart attack in Tahiti, today's children spontaneously hum the unforgettable melody of the “Champs-Elysées”. The updating of this emblematic chorus during the 2018 World Cup, to celebrate footballer N'Golo Kanté, delights the youngest son of the interpreter of "Indian Summer".
"My older brother, Jonathan, and I are very touched that after so long the work of our father is still so popular and has been able to cross all generations", rejoices Julien Dassin, 40 years old, born a few months before her daddy disappeared.
"Far from being out of date"
Since the first success, "Bip bip", released in France in 1965, until "Last Slow", his last hit of 1979, the singer still enjoys a good popularity rating, forty years after his death. “At my wedding, we had chosen And if you didn't exist to open the ceremony,” smiles Anne-Sophie, a 50-year-old professor of letters and northern fan of the singer. For Pierre, a 35-year-old executive, who appreciates "the beauty of his lyrics", Joe Dassin is far from out of date. “In some circles, it's even downright trendy! »He assures.
In fifteen years, the son of filmmaker Jules Dassin and virtuoso violinist Béatrice Launer has recorded nearly 250 songs in French, Spanish, German, English, Italian, Greek and Japanese. Suffice to say that its reputation is global, and it remains so. “Whatever country in the world you travel to, the Champs-Elysées is everyone's lips when my father's name is mentioned,” says Julien Dassin.
From "Daltons" to "Petit Pain au chocolat", passing by "America" or even "the Flower with teeth": in 2020, these titles by Joe Dassin will remain timeless. How and why has this artist dear to the hearts of the French, but always also very popular abroad, succeeded in posterity? “Joe knew how to talk to people,” recalls Claude Lemesle, one of the singer's closest friends.
"When you have no talent, you have to work"
With (or without) his accomplice Pierre Delanoë, who died in 2006, this genius lyricist, now 74 years old, wrote 130 of the star's songs, including “And if you did not exist”, “Hello lovers "Or" Indian Summer ". "We all three locked ourselves up for several weeks for more than twelve hours a day", remembers this architect of Dassin's success, whom Delanoë fondly nicknamed "the attaching". "Each syllable absolutely had to ring true and fall right on the notes he had composed or, more often, taken from foreign and rearranged melodies," says Claude Lemesle. The latter no longer counts the number of times Joe sent him back with Pierre to “redo the lyrics, until the lyrics suit him perfectly. Everyone who has worked with the star confirms it: Dassin was a hard worker. He repeated over and over that "when you have no talent, you have to work," the lyricist still remembers, unconditional "Joe's deep voice, beautiful, powerful and unique".
Hexagonal specialist in French song, journalist Bertrand Dicale also deciphers the reasons for the glory of Dassin, born in the United States where he lived and studied for a long time. “He was a real entertainer , an American-style showman,” he analyzes. Joe Dassin also possessed an infallible sense of melody. He knew like no other how to take up foreign works and make them great successes. This is the case of “Africa”, an Italian song by Toto Cutugno, of which he made, in 1975, one of the slows of the century and his biggest hit: the unforgettable “Indian Summer”.
300 million streams in 2019
The composer and performer has, to date, sold more than 50 million records worldwide, including nearly 17 million in France, with 10 million singles and 7 million albums. Sony lists more than 300 million streams last year on music platforms and social networks while several shows have been produced around his personality and his songs. Among them, "Once upon a time Joe Dassin", designed by the two sons of the star and directed by Christophe Barratier, had worked well in the early 2010s in Paris and in the provinces. And in 2013, “If you did not exist”, the album of virtual duets with Joe Dassin by singer Hélène Ségara had also been a commercial success.
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Commemoration obliges, Friday August 21, at 11:40 pm, France 3 rebroadcasts a long and fascinating documentary by Pascal Forneri: "Joe Dassin: the novel of his life". The myth continues to live on.
Five things to know about Joe Dassin
The artist, who died on August 20, 1980, was not just a singer of hits.
An intellectual. After a school career in Switzerland, the future star returned to the United States, where he began studying medicine before focusing on ethnology and anthropology and earning a doctorate with honors.
Very good at languages. The singer was an incredible polyglot. He spoke English fluently and without accent, but also French, German, Spanish, Italian and Greek. He also knew the words to introduce himself and make himself understood wherever he went. The musician even recorded in Japanese!
Carlos owes him his great successes. In the 1970s, Joe Dassin wrote and composed several hits for his best friend including “Señor Météo” and “The Werewolf's Boogaloo”. He is also the creator of "Bébé requin", sung by France Gall.
Shy and self-conscious. Even though Brassens was one of his biggest fans, the biographers, sons and best friends of the “Indian Summer” singer agree that he was surprisingly lacking in self-confidence. The artist was always surprised to be asked for autographs. And his slight strabismus, which occurred as a result of a childhood injury to the game of darts, made him very complex.
A sensitive novelist. Joe Dassin, who initially wanted to become a writer, had a very fine pen. After the artist's death, his sister Richelle had "Gift for Dorothy" published by Flammarion, a collection of the short stories the singer had written during his student years. One of these texts denounces ordinary racism in segregationist America.