The Claude François biopic Cloclo (also known as My Way) gets shown in the UK this weekend at the Institut Français du Royaume-Uni.The film tells the story of Claude François, Cloclo, the artist best known for writing the original version of the song My Way, Comme d'habitude.
It's a story of ambition that drove him to the top, a drive that sustained his place there in the face of massive changes in fashion and musical style, a career that ended with his untimely death at the age of 39.
François shot to fame in the early 60s with his French cover of the Everly Brothers track Belles Belles Belles (originally Girls, grls, girls) and followed it with other French versions of early rock 'n' roll hits.
Live he borrowed the style and look of Elvis, and performed live with a female dance troupe, and managed to keep his act ahead of the rapidly changing musical and style trends of the 1960s.
In '67 he wrote Comme d'habitude, a hit with a francophoine audience before it was adapted to English, becoming one of the best-known songs in the English language.
In the 70s he moved with the times, adopting disco stylings and recording a French cover of the Bee Gees Massachusetts, La plus belle chose du monde.
In '71 work pressure resulted in a collapse from exhaustion, and he took some time off performing, while continuing with a career that saw him running a record company, a magazine and a modelling agency.
His musical career continued after the short break, the hit songs continuing and the live audience unabated.
François died at the age of 39 in 1978, accidentally electrocuted in his Paris flat.
The film will without a doubt raise the profile of Cloclo to an audience who were in the most part unaware that one of the most famous songs in English was originally the work of a French artist, and there's little doubt that the style of his era will impress, if not surprise, a whole new generation.
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