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France Gall and the controversial song "Sucettes"

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 10/22/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"French pop singer France Gall is major star in her native land and has a strong following throughout Europe, but has received little notice in the United States except for Heavenly having covered her hit "Nous ne Sommes pas des Anges" in the mid-1990s. Born Isabelle Gall in Paris, her father wrote songs for Edith Piaf and in 1965 she won the Eurovision Song Contest with her hit "Poupee de Circe, Poupee de Son." There were those who wanted to dismiss her as the French version of Leslie Gore, but Gall had a much more substantive career, especially with the notoriety she earned from the title song. "Sucettes" was a nice little song about a young girl and her lollipop, but in the sexually charged 1960s the obvious sub-text was about a different sort of oral fixation (I am not going to be more explicit than that; just think about it). The 1965 album "Les Sucettes" is representative of the Gall's best work during the decade when she was a pretty and perky teenager whose vocal strength was more in terms of her performance than her range or power (i.e., she had the innocent sex kitten vocals down big time). "Bonsoir John John" is where Gall pushes her voice as far as it will go. However, her father clearly made sure that she had strong production values behind her in the studio. This is amply proven by the first and best track on the album, "Tu N'as Pas le Droit," which is a catchy girl-group type song pumped up by a strong brass section. Nothing else on the album is as strong, but there is really nothing bad on this album. "Celui Que J'aime" is a nice little acoustic ballad, "Oh! Quelle Famille" makes nice use of a flute, and the children's chorus on "J'ai Retrouvé Mon Chien" is appropriately cute. For those who are interested in what Sixties pop music was like when it was not being sung in English, Gall is a good artist to check out."