ET J'AI CRIÉ, CRIÉ... CHRISTOPHE RENCONTRE AVEC ALINE

Daniel Bevilacqua aka Christophe

Yesterday was another sad day for music, especially in France. Christophe, a celebrated French crooner best known for his ballads Aline and Les Mots Bleus, died at 74.

The Grandma loves music and she is a great admirer of La Chanson Française. Christophe was a great song writer. His paroles (lyrics) full of tenderness, desperate love and hope will be always with us meanwhile we remember them. Songs are eternal and atemporal.

The Grandma and Rennette Watson, who is also French, want to pay homage Christophe talking a little about his life and his works.

Jusqu'à toujours, Christophe. Merci pour vos chansons.

More information: France 24

Daniel Bevilacqua, (13 October 1945-16 April 2020), better known by the stage name Christophe, was a French singer and songwriter. He was born in the Paris suburb of Juvisy-sur-Orge, to an Italian father.

Christophe became famous in the early 1960s with his first hit being Aline, in 1965. His hits include the song Oh!... Mon Amour which he sang in French and Italian.

After a small break, he returned in 1971, with Francis Dreyfus launching the Motors record label (Disques Motors) and becoming the producer of Christophe records. The result was the 1973 Les Paradis perdus. In 1974, he recorded Les mots bleus lyrics by Jean-Michel Jarre.

In 1978, he came back with Le Beau Bizarre. 

Daniel Bevilacqua aka Christophe

In 1983, Christophe released another single, Succès fou, followed by Clichés d'amour in 1984 in which he sang 1940s and 1950s classics such as Arrivederci Roma and Dernier baiser, a French version of the Mexican classic Bésame mucho.

In 1985, he wrote Ne raccroche pas a song which is believed to be about the Princess Stephanie of Monaco. The following year, he wrote the song Boule de flipper for Corynne Charby.

In 1996, after a break, he returned with his album Bevilacqua. In 2001, he released another album Comm' si la terre penchait. In February 2002, Christophe performed, in Clermont-Ferrand, his first live concert in more than two decades, followed by two appearances at the Olympia in March 2002.

Christophe's 1970s song Les mots bleus was covered by Thierry Amiel in 2003. 

In 2011, Christophe took part in a tribute album for Alain Bashung two years after the latter's death. He sang Alcaline, a song written by Bashung in 1989 for his album Novice.

In 1971, Christophe married his girlfriend Véronique and fathered his daughter Lucie.

He died on April 16, 2020.

More information: The Guardian

Aline is a single by French singer Christophe. The song became one of the two big hits in France during the summer of 1965 along with Capri c'est fini of Hervé Vilard. It sold one million records. The song was produced by the Disc'AZ label. The song is about a man begging his woman to come back and has been described as a slow, romantic ballad.

On 25 September 1965 it reached number one in Belgium's top 10, surpassing Capri c'est fini which came in second place, becoming a substantial hit in that country according to Billboard magazine.

In October 1966 it became the number one hit in Israel. The song was composed by Christophe and arranged by Jacques Dejean. Aline is Christophe's favourite song.

Christophe composed the song while visiting his grandmother for lunch. He did not immediately have a name for the song. However, on a visit to the dentist, he asked the assistant what her name was, to which she replied Aline. He so liked the sound that he decided to use it as the name for the new song.

Christophe's Aline

Aline is the second record of Christophe and his first great success. His first record Elle s'appelait Sophie had sold only 27 records. In an interview with Le Point, Christophe chose Aline without hesitation as his favourite a song and he still sings [it] with the same pleasure for 50 years.

The song became the target of a lawsuit when a singer by the name of Jacky Moulière sued Christophe alleging plagiarism. Christophe won the lawsuit on appeal in 1970.

In 1979, Christophe's career was not going well when his wife Véronique came up with the idea of re-issuing the song. Christophe followed her advice and reissued the song without modifications from the original. The new release became a big hit and just like the original it reached a million records. It then went on to sell a total of 3.5 million records.

In the novel Lost Luggage which takes place during the student protests in Paris, a man listening to the song on the radio, after learning that his companion is pregnant, suggests to her that if the baby is a girl, she should be given the name Aline. When the woman asks him what would happen if the baby is a boy, he replied that he would name him Christophe.

In 1965, due to the great success of the song, it was chosen by Seeburg, a jukebox company, as a test song. The company bought one hundred records and sent them to the United States where they were added to the selection of an equal number of jukeboxes in strategic locations across the country to test consumer demand for French songs of that era. If successful, an additional 50,000 records would be ordered with plans to purchase additional French hits.

More information: Christophe - Interview aux Francomanias (French)

J'avais dessiné sur le sable
Son doux visage qui me souriait
Puis il a plu sur cette plage
Dans cet orage, elle a disparu...

I drew on the sand
Her soft face that smiled at me
Then it rained on this beach
In this storm, she disappeared...

Christophe