Frères Sourires (23): Julien Clerc

Speenhoff requested me to write a post about Julien Clerc, and focussing on his collaboration with Carla Bruni. That whole story is here. In short: they met at a dinnerparty, she told him she wrote songs, he politely smiled and referred to his agent. Then one day he found a fax, with beautiful lyrics. When he found out the song was written by Carla, he not only named the album after that first song (Si j'étais elle), she ended up writing five more songs for that cd, that came out in 2000 and sold very well. Later on, Carla duetted with Julien, in a translated version of the standard I Get Along Without You Very Well. And she wrote two songs for his last album. When I interviewed Carla, she told me it took her a long time to write these, because she was already tangled up in the No Promises-project, for which she read a lots of English poetry and quite frankly got a little bored of writing French songs. "But hey, I promised to do it, so I did it", she told me.
Paul-Alain Leclerc, aka Julien Clerc, is a survivor. He was among the first French artists who enjoyed succes across the border in the sixties, scoring major hits in Holland - the very danceable Venise being the best. When you see his afro-like coupe, it's no surprise he made a name in France doing the musical Hair. He's pop-royalty in France, made a lot of albums and staying in very good shape. He's not my cup of tea, but I enjoy his hits every now and then, and sure like his collabs with Carla.

Julien Clerc - Elle voulait qu'on l'appelle Venise
Julien Clerc - Elisa (Gainsbourg-cover)
Julien Clerc & Carla Bruni - Qu'est-ce que tu crois?
Julien Clerc - Si j'étais elle
Julien Clerc - Une vie de rien (both songs written by Carla Bruni)