Sylvie Vartan is a French pop institution, as popular today as when she first took the yé-yé scene by storm in 1962 with the first of a half century-worth of hits. The vivacious and always stylish Vartan was also a pioneer amongst the new breed of French female artists, crossing the Atlantic several times in the early 60s to record. She proved remarkably adept at tackling material in English, which resulted in many superb recordings chanted in a husky, compelling accent.
Sylvie’s main foreign release in that era was the US-only album “Gift Wrapped In Paris”. It combined tracks from the 1963 “Sylvie a Nashville” LP along with new sessions cut in New York in late 1964 with a crack session crew and the likes of Ellie Greenwich on backing vocals. Later on Sylvie recorded in England and utilised the talents of her husband Johnny Hallyday’s in-house writers, Tommy Brown and Mick Jones, the latter later to become famous in the band Foreigner.
“En Anglais …et en Américain” compiles the best moments from Sylvie’s 1960s English language releases, such as the uptown R&B of ‘Gonna Cry’ and ‘I Made My Choice,’ girl-group nuggets like ‘I Can’t Make Him Look At Me’ and ‘I Heard Somebody Say’ and the groovy ‘Thinking About You’ and ‘Run For The Sun.’ We also delve deep into the vault to find previously unheard gems such as ‘You Please Me So’ and ‘Whirlpool.’ With superior remastered sound and an extensive, heavily illustrated sleeve note that tells the full story behind Vartan’s experiments singing in English, “En Anglais… et en Américain” is a must-have for both her ardent admirers and any fan of the classiest 60s girls.
Compiled with the full co-operation of Sylvie herself and the sleeve note contains a brand new interview.