Rétro: Johnny Hallyday - Mon Fils

With Johnny Hallyday in hospital in the Carribean, I thought I'd give this week's retro spot to a great piece of film of Johnny in the 60s, at the peak of Johnnymania.

The video is from a performance at a UNICEF Gala in December 1968, the song Mon Fils is a melodramatic work, a perfect teenage opera.

You can hear echoes of Dylan, as well as chanson, but above all there's the sound of a singer pushing the limits of what a pop song could be.

Obviously very much of its era, of course, but it's the kind of work that for other artists would be a highlight of their career.

Interesting that much of Hallyday's work remains not so well known in the UK, where he's though of as either a recycler of American songs into French or as an ageing rocker.

Johnny is expected to resume his tour, which sees him play his first full concerts in the UK in October. Get well soon Johnny, and hopefully see you there.

Rétro: France Gall - Poupée de cire, poupée de son

With this week's attention on the Eurovision song contest, I thought I'd take a look back to one of France's most memorable moments on Eurovision, with the 1965 win by France Gall.

The song  Poupée de cire, poupée de son was written by Serge Gainsbourg. Needless to say, one of France's greatest singers of the time and greatest songwriters ever. Needless to say, it was for Luxembourg.

It was the first time a song that was not a ballad won Eurovision. It was both a great song in the then-contemporary pop style, which also mocked  the genre at the same time. While a perfect example of yéyé pop, its clever wordplay in the lyrics puts it in  a different league from most of the other releases of that era.

Gall and Gainsbourg had worked before, with songs like N'écoute pas les idoles and Laisse tomber les filles proving to be hits before Poupée de cire, poupée de son won the Eurovision contest in Naples in 1965.

Gall and Gainsbourg would work together on other songs, although they would eventually dissolve their artistic partnership at the end of the 60s.

The song was re-recorded by Gall in a number of languages, as the exposure of Eurovision opened up a market for her outwith France.