Friday, June 30, 2006

Michèle Richard

Michèle Richard is a french-canadian singer, born in Sherbrooke, Quebec in 1946. Michèle's singing career began when she was 10 years old, after appearing on her father's local TV show.

The peak of her popularity was in the 1960's, where Michèle, in her late teens and early twenties, brought miniskirts and go go boots to french Canada. Michèle's success lay in her ability to deliver the mod sound of the swinging sixties to her teen Quebecois audience. Her hits included french covers of such artists as the Beatles, Sonny and Cher and the Supremes, to name a few. These songs were pure 60's pop, dealing with boyfriends, break-ups, and having fun. She could be seen every week performing these hits on the teen variety show, "Jeunesse d'aujourd'hui" (inspired by the "American Bandstand" concept).

Michèle won the coveted award of Miss Radio and Television at the Gala des Artistes, in 1967 and, as a result, was asked to sing the official theme song of Expo 67. The 45 record included the original french version "Un jour un jour" on side A as well as it's english counterpart, "Hey Friend Say Friend" on the B side.

Michéle Richard - Les boîtes à go go


Download video @ scopitones

credit: expolounge

10 comments:

Jason Stockl said...

I would like to at least have credit for having writen this bio!

visit my blog:
http://expolounge.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Hello Sofie
A brilliant post,I especially like the film clip.
Michele Richard is a fine singer and in my opinion her version of the classic La Plus Belle Pour Aller Danser is superior to Sylvie's as she has a better voice and the arrangement is better.
Great Stuff.
YEYEOHYEAH

Jason Stockl said...

Merci!

Anonymous said...

she looks a bit like rachel bilson from the o.c

Anonymous said...

Michele Richard became a very common blond variety singer and a key figure of Montreal's transvestite scene. My best friend met her a few years ago and says that she is a very nice person.

She is still more of a kistch or 'ketaine' (as we say in Quebec) icon than a true ye-ye girl.

Bruno said...

Hi Sofie,thought I left a comment here but it seems not.I always used to think she sang about "les bottes a gogo" (gogo boots) instead of "les boites a gogo" (gogo clubs) :)

Anonymous said...

Nope, the song is really called "Les boites a gogo".

http://www.disquesmerite.com/htm/fiche.asp?NumArtiste=46&NumAlbum=1031

"Michèle chante les vraies chagrins d’amour d’adolescentes et enfin, Les boîtes à gogo qui fait l’objet d’un scopitone, (aujourd’hui vidéo-clip)".

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Hilary said...

I am a BIG American fan of Michele Richard. I don't understand too much of what she sings but I really like both her sound and her voice. I own all her Disques Merites CDs except for the Christmas and Country albums. I had them shipped in from Quebec down here to Texas.

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