Francoise Hardy - vocals 

- none known

Genre: pop

Rating: *** (3 stars)

Title:  Francoise Hardy

Company: Vogue

Catalog: CFH 2

Year: 1964

Country/State: France

Grade (cover/record): VG/VG

Comments: French pressing; gatefold sleeve

Available: 1

GEMM catalog ID: 4

Price: $50.00

Cost: $1.00

Superficially, you couldn't blame anyone stumbling across this album from comparing Francoise Hardy to England's Marianne Faithful. Both are stunning blondes, promoted by their respective record labels to take full advantage of their looks ... Luckily that's pretty much where the comparison ends. Whereas Faithful never had much of a voice and was little more than a pretty face at the mercy of her producers, Hardy was very much her own boss (check out the inner sleeve photos of her in the studio). Produced by Charles Blackwell and released by the French Vogue label, 1964's cleverly titled "Francoise Hardy" serves to spotlight her multiple talents. In addition to owning a gorgeous voice, she was an accomplished songwriter - 11 of the 12 songs were written or co-written Hardy. Like most of her Vogue catalog, the collection's a little to heavy on touching ballads ('Tu Ne Dis Rien', 'Pars' and 'La Nuit Est Sur La Ville'), but Hardy gets a couple of opportunities to strut her stuff in a more rock oriented fashion. 'Pourtant Tu M'aimes' comes off as a neat Gallic version of '60s Brill Building girl group, the sneering 'Je N'attends Plus Personne' sports a couple of great guitar solos and the Marty Wilde co-written 'Pas Gentille' offers up a weird country influenced sound. Curiously, while all 12 songs are performed in French, the track listing includes a couple of English translations. (Never released in the States, the album was originally issued with a gatefold sleeve.)

"Francoise Hardy" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Je Veux Qu'Il Revienne (Only You Can Do It) (B. Well - Francoise Hardy)- 
2.) Tu N'as Qu'un Mot a Dire (Francoise Hardy) - 
3.) Tu Ne Dis Rien (Francoise Hardy) - 
4.) Et Meme (Francoise Hardy) - 
5.) Pourtant Tu M'aimes (I Still Love Him) (J. Cole - J. Cross - Francoise Hardy) - 
6.) Pars (Francoise Hardy) - 
(side 1)
7.) Je N'attends Plus Personne (Meccia - Ciacci - Francoise Hardy) - 
8.) La Nuit Est Sur La Ville (Francoise Hardy) - 
9.) Pas Gentille (Bad Boy) (Marty Wilde - Francoise Hardy) - 
10.) Dans Le Monde Entier (Francoise Hardy) - 
11.) Nous Etions Amies (Rossi - C. Combo - Francoise Hardy) - 
12.) Mon Amie Le Rose (C. Coulier - J. Lacome) - 

Genre: pop

Rating: *** (3 stars)

Title:  Francois ...

Company: Four Corners

Catalog: 

Year: 1967

Country/State: France

Grade (cover/record): VG+/VG+

Comments: laminated cover in excellent shape

Available: 1

GEMM catalog ID: 4

Price: $35.00

Cost: $1.00

Signed by Kapp's newly formed Four Corners Records subsidiary, "Francoise ..." served as a nifty introduction to Hardy's catalog. Gifted with a decent and versatile voice (far better than Faithfull's little girl wallow), the majority of the 12 tracks were Hardy originals. While material such as 'Ce Petit Coeur', 'Il Se Fait Tard' and 'L'Amitie' fell firmly under the whispery chick singer category, elsewhere 'Tout Ce Qu'on M'a Dit', 'En T'Attendant' and 'Je T'aime' displayed a much tougher girl-group/rock sound. "'Non C'e N'est Pas Un Reve' was our personal favorite for it's dead-on Phil Spector wall-of-sound knock-off. All-in-all it was a pretty cool set; particularly for folks who thought French pop was little more than accordions ...

"Francoise ..." track listing:
(side 1)

1.) Ce Petit Coeur (Francoise Hardy) - 2:08
2.) Il Se Fait Tard (Francoise Hardy) - 1:37
3.) Tout Ce Qu'on M'a Dit (Francoise Hardy - Brown) - 2:10
4.) L'Amitie (Bourgeois - Riviere) - 2:22
5.) En T'attendant (Francoise Hardy) - 1:45
6.) Je T'aime (Francoise Hardy - Jones) - 2:00

(side 2)

1.) Non C'e N'est Pas Un Reve (Charles Blackwell - Francoise Hardy) - 2:55
2.) Quel Mal Y A-t-il a Ca (Francoise Hardy - Howard) - 2:20
3.) Tu Peux Bien (Francoise Hardy) - 1:46
4.) Le Temps Des Souvenirs (Datin - Vidalin - Charles Blackwell) - 2:37
5.) Je Pennais (Francoise Hardy) - 2:02
6.) Dis Lui Non (Skelton - Francoise Hardy) - 2:22

Genre: pop

Rating: *** (3 stars)

Title:  Star

Company: Peters International

Catalog: PLD-2016

Year: 1977

Country/State: France

Grade (cover/record): VG+/VG+

Comments: minor ring wear

Available: 1

GEMM catalog ID: 4669

Price: $20.00

Produced by Gabriel Yared (who also co-wrote a couple of tracks with Hardy), this mid-career release is far from her best work.  Even the normally glowing Hardy looks somewhat tired, depressed and pensive on the front and back covers.  That said, 1977's "Star" has enough going for it to warrant a spin.  The extended title track (co-written with Janis Ian) is pretty, though the heartache-of-stardom storyline is cheesy.  'A Vannes' has a catchy, upbeat melody and some horns that sound like they were lifted from a Paul McCartney song.  Equally likeable are 'Flashbacks' and ''.  

"Star" track listing:
(side 1)

1.) Star   (Francoise Hardy - Janis Ian) - 

2.) Chason Sur Toi Et Nous   (Francoise Hardy - Gabriel Yared) - 

3.) Enresgistrement   (Sergi Gainsborough) - 

4.) A Vannes   (M. Jonasz) - 

(side 2)

1.) Flashbacks   (L. Plamondon - R. Vincent) - 

2.) L'impasse    (Francoise Hardy - P. Papadiamandis)

3.) Ton Enfance   (P. Grosz - A. Goldsetin) - 

4.) Je ne Suis Que Moi  (Francoise Hardy - C. Lara) - 

5.) Drole de Fete  (Francoise Hardy - W. Sheller) - 

6.) Fatiguee  (Francoise Hardy - Gabriel Yared) -