Dick Rivers (born Hervé Forneri, 24 April 1945 – 24 April 2019) was a French singer and actor who began performing in the early 1960s. He was an important figure in introducing rock and roll music in France. He is known for being an admirer of Elvis Presley, who highly influenced both his singing and looks. His stage name
came from the character Deke Rivers that
Presley played in his second film, Loving You (1957). During his fifty-five
year career, he recorded 33 studio albums and 3 live albums.
Rivers was born in Nice, France, and started his music
career in 1961 as the lead singer of the band Les Chats Sauvages, cutting his
first record on his fifteenth birthday. In 1961, the British music magazine,
NME, reported that a Rivers concert with his group Les Chats Sauvages at the
Palais des Sports de Paris, whilst headlining with Vince Taylor, had turned
into a full-scale riot. Rivers left Les Chats Sauvages in 1962 to pursue a solo
career.
His first album, Baby John, was released in November
1962. From then on it was a long list of albums and fruitful collaborations
that punctuated his repertoire. An avid admirer of Gene Vincent and Elvis
Presley , Dick Rivers with Johnny Hallyday and Eddy Mitchell popularized rock 'n'
roll in France . Dick recorded French adaption’s of Beatles standards but one
of his biggest hits of 1963 is without doubt “Tu n’es plus la” a French
adaptation of Blue Bayou by Roy Orbison.
In November 1964, Dick shared the bill with the Beach
Boys at the Olympia in Paris, during a Musicorama . The following year, the singer
released the French version of the Moody Blues hit, Go now which reached the
first place in the hit-parade of Hello friends , the famous TV show.
Dick Rivers was the only French artist to be invited by
John Lennon and Paul McCartney to appear on their show "The Music of
Lennon & McCartney" for Granada TV in Manchester on December 17, 1965.
In 1967, he received a gold record for “Viens me faire oublie” which reached No.
1 in Canada.
While he had already some 5 million records sold to his
credit Dick Rivers left for the United States in 1967, and recorded an album
with rhythm and blues musicians. The “Dick Rivers story” was recorded in the
Muscle Shoals studios in Alabama and remains one of the best albums of that
era. In 1969, he met his idol Elvis Presley after a concert in Las Vegas for a
chat.
In the 1970s, he co-directed some albums with Alain
Bashung including “The Rock Machine” “Rockin’ Along.” “The River's Country Side”and“Rock & Roll
Star.”. The year 1982 marked the reunion with his ex-acolytes of the Wild Cats with
the album, Wild Cats.
On several occasions, Dick Rivers has tried to break his
image of a rocker by animating a musical program for several years between 1982
and 1992 on Radio Monte Carlo. In the early 90s, he realized his American dream
and recorded in Austin, Texas, a tribute album to Buddy Holly, rock pioneer,
Holly days in Austin (1991).
In the cinema, he acted under the direction of
Jean-Pierre Mocky, in The candid Madame Duff (1999) and The Furet (2003) . In
2004, he went on stage for Jean Genet's play Les paravents, played at the
Théâtre national de Chaillot.
In 2006, the new generation of French songs appeared on
his album soberly titled Dick Rivers, on which Benjamin Biolay, Matthieu
Chedid, or Mickey 3D collaborated. In 2011, he celebrated his 50-year career
with the release of an album and a confession book, Mister D , and then toured
all over France.
In May 2014, his album, Rivers, was released. Unfortunately,
his planned tour in 2015 was cancelled due to Dick suffering a traumatic injury
from a bad fall on a staircase. In 2017 he recorded “Africa” with Julien Dore..
In 2018, Dick Rivers participated in the "Age of Tender" tour, with
other stars of the '60s and' 70s.
He died of cancer on April 24, 2019, the day he turned 74.
(Edited from various French translations mainly from
Wikipedia & Gala magazine)
2 comments:
For “Dick Rivers – Disque D'Or” go here:
https://www.upload.ee/files/9868566/DICK_RIVERS_-_Disque_D_or.rar.html
1 Baby John 2:30
2 Au Cœur De La Nuit (A Picture Of You) 2:15
3 À Seville 3:10
4 Je Ne Peux Pas T'Oublier (Can't Get Used To Losing You) 2:30
5 Tu N'Es Plus La (Blue Bayou) 2:25
6 Rien Que Toi (You'll Never Walk Alone) 2:55
7 Va T'En, Va T'En (Go Now) 3:10
8 C'Est Long, Long, Long (Sur Un Air Du Folklore) 2:30
9 Couleurs (Colours) 2:45
10 L'Histoire D'Un Homme 3:25
11 Jericho 2:25
12 Je Suis Triste (All I Want For Christmas Is You) 3:05
13 L'Enfant Et La Guitare 3:30
14 Un Cœur Blessé 3:00
15 Virginie 2:30
16 Sarah Jane (The Folk Singer) 2:40
17 What'd I Say 5:15
18 Ne Pleure Pas (True Love Ways) 2:30
thank you.
Post a Comment