Paul Mauriat (Marseille, 4 March 1925 – 3 November 2006
in Perpignan) was a French orchestra leader, specializing in light music. He is
best known in the United States for his remake of André Popp's "Love is
Blue", which was #1 for 5 weeks in 1968. Other recordings for which he is
known include El Bimbo, Toccata and Penelope.
Mauriat grew up in Marseilles and began leading his own
band during the Second World War. In the 1950s he became musical director to at
least two well-known French singers, Charles Aznavour and Maurice Chevalier,
touring with them respectively.
In 1957, Mauriat released his first EP Paul Mauriat, a
four track RGM release. Between 1959-1964 Mauriat recorded several albums on
the Bel-Air record label under the name Paul Mauriat et Son Orchestre, as well
as using the various pseudonyms of Richard Audrey, Nico Papadopoulos, Eduardo
Ruo and Willy Twist, to better reflect the international flavour of his
recordings. During this period, Mauriat also released several recordings with
Les Satellites, where he creatively arranged vocal backing harmony for such
albums as Slow Rock and Twist, (1961), A Malypense (1962) and Les Satellites
Chantent Noel (1964).
Mauriat composed the music for several French soundtracks
(also released on Bel-Air) including Un Taxi Pour Tobrouk (1961), Horace 62
(1962) and Faits Sauter La Banque (1964).
He wrote his first song with André Pascal. In 1958 they
were prizewinners in the Coq d'or De La Chanson Francaise with Rendez-vous au
Lavendou. Using the pseudonym of Del Roma, Mauriat was to have his first
international hit with Chariot, which he wrote in collaboration with friends
Franck Pourcel (co-composer), Jacques Plante (French lyrics) and Raymond
Lefevre (orchestrator). In the USA the song was recorded as I Will Follow Him
by Little Peggy March and became #1 on the Billboard charts in all categories
for 3 weeks. In 1992 the song was featured prominently in the film Sister Act
starring Whoopi Goldberg. More recently, Eminem included some bars in his song,
Guilty Conscience.
Between 1967 and 1972 he wrote a lot of songs for
Mireille Mathieu; Mon Credo (1,335,000 copies sold), Viens dans ma rue, La
premiere etoile, Geant, etc. (to name but a few) and contributed 130 song
arrangements for Charles Aznavour.
In 1965 Mauriat established Le Grand Orchestre de Paul
Mauriat, and released hundreds of recordings and compilations through the
Philips label for the next 28 years.
In 1969, Mauriat started his first world tour, visiting
countries like United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Brazil and other
Latin American countries.
For several decades, some of Mauriat's compositions
served as musical tracks for Soviet TV programs, such as "In the world of
animals" (V mire zhivotnykh) and "Kinopanorama", among others.
Mauriat gave his final performance in 1998 in Osaka, but
his orchestra keeps touring around the world and has twice traveled to China.
Mauriat's former lead pianist, Gilles Gambus, then became the orchestra's
conductor in 1999 and led successful tours of Japan, China, and Russia. Gambus
had worked with Mauriat for more than 25 years. In 2005, classical French Horn
instrumentalist, Jean-Jacques Justafre assumed conductorship of the orchestra,
and led successful tours of Japan and Korea in late 2005.
Relative to his peers, Paul Mauriat has one of the
largest recording catalogs, featuring more than 1,000 titles just from his
Polygram era (1965-1993). He was awarded with the Grand Prix from the French
recording industry, a MIDEN trophy, and in 1997 won the prestigious distinction
of "Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres" from the French Ministry of
Culture. He has sold over 40 million albums worldwide and held 28 tours in
Japan from 1973 to 1998.
1 comment:
For” Spotlight on Paul Mauriat” go here:
http://www38.zippyshare.com/v/qUl2cLk0/file.html
01- EL BIMBO (02:36)
02- TOCCATA (02:42)
03- PENELOPE (04:01)
04- LA REINE DE SABA (03:07)
05- NOCTURNAE (02:50)
06- MINUETTO (02:30)
07- LOVE IS BLUE (02:37)
08- HAVE YOU NEVER BEEN MELLOW (03:14)
09- LET IT BE (02:59)
10- YESTERDAY ONCE MORE (03:49)
11- EL CONDOR PASA (03:09)
12- I WANT LAST A DAY WITHOUT YOU (03:22)
13- LE TEMPS DES FLEURS (02:52)
14- LA NUIT (02:22)
15- HOLIDAYS (02:37)
16- TOMBE LA NEIGE (02:57)
17- J’AI PEUR (02:19)
18- JE TAIME MOI NON PLUS (03:14)
19- EMMANUELLE (02:46)
20- JE NE SUIS QUE DE L’AMOUR (02:59)
21- THE WAY WE WERE (02:32)
22- DU SOLEIL PLEIN LES YEUX (03:24)
23- JEUX INTERDITS (03:24)
24- THE SOUND OF SILENCE (03:09)
A big thank you to https://zokyat.wordpress.com/ for active link.
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