France is well known as a country of singers (Piaf, Aznavour, Patricia Kaas, Becaud), as the country of the words. But the french musical scene has generated some good and well respected musicians, like Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelli, nowadays Jean-Michel Jarre, Romane, Birelli Lagrene. This is the reason why we have set up this website, to let you know that in the sixties, the french musical scene was also very active and creative. We just hope that their pieces of music will be remembered and maybe played on and on by new bands all over Europe or even in other part of our small world.

The first instrumental tracks penned by French composers were written in the early sixties (1961). Dean Noton, an English young guitarist who settled in Paris, and his pals Jacques Pasut, Dany Maranne, and Christian Benarrosch , better known as les Fantômes as well as a future famous singer and actor Jacques Dutronc, penned "Fort Chabrol" (Dutronc/Noton) which would be later recorded also as a song under the title of "Le temps de l'amour" ("Time of love") and made a hit by Françoise Hardy, one of the top female singer of the sixties. Les Fantômes recorded too "Mafia" (Dutronc), "Original Twist guitar" (Dutronc/Noton) and "Cafard" (D.Maranne), followed by "Twist 33" (Pasut/Maranne), "La Shlap" (Maranne/Pasut) and "Elle est bien bonne". In 1963 D. Noton composed "Jamming the twist" with Bennaroch, "Reflexion", "Bastic" and "Tolrahc". Roger David , rythm guitar who took over J.Pasut (leaving for the army) wrote "Stone city" and "Train Fantôme".

The second instrumental band to play his own material were les Champions who started as an instrumental band in October 1962, after having split from their singer. They first backed Gene Vincent for a set of shows in Paris and then went in studio to cut their first instrumental records. They started with tracks written by their bass player, Benoît Kauffman : "L'infini au soleil", "Le train", and "1647 m long wave", which was the location of a radio station.

Claude Ciari, their talented lead guitar, penned "Golf Drouot" dedicated to the famous Paris youth spot, where all the teenager tried heir chance when they sung or played R & R, Les Champions made a hit of an instrumental cover of "Poupée brisée", a song which was made a hit by Johnny Hallyday in 1962. This song was penned by Eddie Vartan, who was an A & R man and a well known session musician, who had his own orchestra. His sister would soon become one of the favourite female singer of the sixties and one time wife of Johnny Halliday : Sylvie Vartan.

Another composer was Léo Missir who used to work with the Barclay label, in which subsidiary les Champions were under contract. Léo made "T'shirt" and "1293 m long wave", for them and "Terrible twist" with Tony Harvey (Vince Taylor's Playboys), "Le crabe", and "La langouste" all recorded by the Vince Taylor backing guys.

In 1963/64 there were some newcomers under the name of Les Fingers, who in fact were jazz musicians who surfed on the rock twist wave and cut some good French sides like "Finger print", "Cavalier du feu", "Banjo song" and "Cavalcade" (J.Arel/J.Cl.Olivier (lead guitar)). They got a hit with an original penned by Jacques Arel an A & R man who had the idea of setting up les Fingers, with "Special blue jeans". Les Fingers played also "Mister Chou Bang Lee", "Les guitares de décembre" (Arel/Hortis) and "Top secret" (Olivier/L.Gasté).

Some other good originals were played by less Four Dreamers, it was necessary to have an English name to be competitive, like "Attila" penned by Leo Berdugoo, lead guitar, or "Jet melody", "Oh Lady", "The smile of Paris" (Canfora/Baselli), "Retiens la nuit" and "C'est une fille comme toi" (Garvarentz).

Another good composer was the American born Mickey Baker, a black guitarist who emigrated from the United states in the early sixties, and penned "Le grand M", "1,2,3,4", "Sur la plage", and "La main du diable" for a young band called Les Mustangs.

In the same range we have to mention Léo Petit, better known as composer as William Stanray, who was a famous session man, one the first guitarist in Paris to play with a Fender in the fifties. Léo Petit came from the Jazz scene, and concentrated in sessions he backed almost all the French singers from Johnny Hallyday to Gilbert Becaud or Françoise Hardy. He also composed some good tracks like "Galaxie" , a hit by Les champions, les Guitares and his own band les Guitares du Diable.

Also a reputed musician was Albert Raisner, an harmonica player and disc jockey of the most successful TV teenager programme "Age tendre et têtes de bois". Albert penned "Last space train" for the Spotnicks and "Météor special" for Les Schtroumpfs.

Among the leading musicians was also Jacques Denjean, a high in demand conductor who wrote and recorded "La route" which was made a hit by the Spotnicks.

In the experienced category are also Les Drivers, who all came from the jazz scene and penned some excellent original like "Mademoiselle twist", "Golden twist", "Spiritual twist", "Manneken twist" mostly composed by J.P. Martin (lead guitar).

But the most successful instrumental hit was penned and recorded by Les Aiglons, young musicians who came from Lausanne in Switzerland and made a million seller in 1963 with "Stalactite". They made the charts in 16 countries including Japan and the USA. The track was composed by Jean-Marc Blanc the organ player, like two other minor hits "Troika" and "Christine". The lead guitar Léon Franciloli penned "Panorama" (another hit), "Dans le vent", "Tennessee", "Europa" and "Rosko".

Another good group was les Guitares, backing group of one of the top female singer in the sixties Sheila, who made some originals in the only two Eps they cut: "Spatial slow", "Les Martiens arrivent", written by their lead guitar Ph. Doiteau and the A&R man Claude carrère, as well as "Chris craft" and "Cavalcade sidérale" also written by Claude Carrère.

The one time composers were Les chats sauvages with "Horizon," an outlaw type tune penned by the lead guitar J.Cl.Roboly, as well as Jean Pierre Prevotat, les players's drummer, who penned "Nashville" and "Drums theme".
Among the young wave, there is a band les Cyclones cut a self penned original: "Lucky Luke", (B.Ferraro, lead guitar).

The same happened with les Monégasques with "Chevauchée du diable" (J.P.Massiéra), Les Schtroumpfs with "TV d'Antibes" (P.Logelin, organ player), les Rebelles with "Sideral twist" (T.Moore, lead guitar), Les Pingouins with "Iceberg", "Groenland", "Sylvie" (Fournier, lead guitar, Blanc-Francard, rhythm). Les Arverns made also an original "Special teenager" like the Gardians with "Gardian's theme", and les Flash with "Le dahu" and "Prends la caravelle".

One must also bear in mind the Swiss teenagers like les Sorciers with "Cyclone" et "Monika" written by Michel Saugy, lead guitar as well as "Natacha", penned and played by G. Mathey lead guitar with Les Relax, "Spleen", "La vallée des adieux", penned by Daniel Nicollin (lead guitar) and played by les Four Shakers, the big competitor of the former band.

In order to be complete we cannot end without mentioning the prolific composer Burt Blanca, who in 62 was only 16 years old and wrote "Texas rider", "Shamash", "Accordeon twist", and later "Wolga guitar", and "Babouchkine".