MOVED!

Bonjour tout le monde,

This blog is no longer active!

Are you still here? ;)

Join me over at À la carte for my new and improved music blog!

The entire Babette's Feast blog posts are currently archived on the new blog. In the next few weeks, all MP3s on this site will be gone.

Tou-de-loo!

Mimi la twisteuse

Top 3 searches that lead to this blog

1 - Michèle Richard
2 - Après Ski
3 - Victoire Scott


Well I'll be.

In other news, this blog will soon be moved to a new site. More on that later.

Stay tuned!

The Interpreters

Little unknown girl duo from Frankfurt, Germany, circa 1965. I realised today while searching for some info on these two lovelies that their great tune "I Get the Message" was featured on Vol 1 of Girls in the Garage!

"Stop that Man", the single that was intended as the A side, is a fun-yet-creepy plea to save The Interpreters from "that man", ie the obvious STALKER who follows them around town and keeps making eyes at them. Not only that, but he's as "mean as he can be". Who knew sociopaths could be this much fun to dance around to?

Not much is out there about who Sylvia and Beate were, or how this record ended up on American shores. If anyone has a clue, do tell!

The Interpreters - Stop that Man
The Interpreters - I Get the Message

This post and its songs are archived at À la carte

Homme tout petit

Here's a recording of a young girl singing France Gall's "Homme tout petit", found at a garage sale this summer.

From the girl's accent I gather this was recorded in Montreal, where the song was a big hit in 1969.

Mutoscope Auto-Recordings were available everywhere around the world until the late 60s...you would go into a booth (usually at fairs or on busy street corners), drop in a few coins and had one minute to record whatever you wanted.



The quality of this record is very bad, but hey, there is only one in the world like it, and it's kind of heartwarming to hear her sing "PAM PAM PAM PAM PAM PAM PAM PAM"!

And if you need a reminder of how the original goes, here's France Gall's scopitone for the song.

Unknown - Homme tout petit

This post and its song are archived at À la carte

Kiddie a Go-Go #5 : Secret Agent Kiki

Bonjour!

It's funny because since I started the Kiddie a Go-Go themed posts, this blog has been painfully unpopular, har har!

Well then...MOVING RIGHT ALONG...*is this thing on?*

Maybe this will shake things up: Kiki!

Kiki was a Belgian boy signed to Palette Records, the top Belgian label of the time.

Real name: Kiki Isaye, later to become the drummer for Belgian band Blue Rock. Photo here (please note: this info is taken from a thing called the interweb...MIGHT NOT BE ACTUAL FACT!)

Kiki released a bunch of 45 singles, including one I'd love to get my dirty mittens on called "Vive les chansons yéyé".

Here he is singing a fantastic song called "L'Agent secret", in which Kiki tells us that what he reallys wants to be isn't a yéyé singing star but a Secret Agent man! He would be so good at it that even James Bond would want him dead, he sings. This one is very much in the style of Nancy Sinatra's "Last of the Secret Agents".

And finally, another nice poppy yéyé track called "L'Affreux Jojo", which has nothing to do with the Michel Polnareff song of the same name.

Bon baisers de Kiki!

Kiki-L'Agent secret
Kiki-L'Affreux Jojo

This post and its songs are archived at À la carte

Rockin' Sounds...THREE TIMES THEIR SIZE!

Bonjour to you on this NYE!

I went through some of my old posts and realised that I had a pattern of writing a lot more when I'm on holiday and that 2008 was a very slow year for this blog! OOPSY!
So thank you for coming back to this blog, even though I rarely post!

Because my blog probably had less than 10 posts in 2008 and because I am loving posting about children singing rock n'roll tunes I thought I would end the year with a bang (and a TAM)!

A double post: the freakin' BANTAMS and kids singing Plastic Bertrand! Rock n' Roll fun !

I found The Bantam's record about 15 years ago in Montreal for a buck. I was very interested in anything 60s or garage music related back then and looooooooved these freckled little punks. Their version of Susie Q is surprisingly fierce ("awooooooow!"). I don't know why, but kids punkin' and rockin' out always puts a smile on my face.

They also do a fine version of "Ticket to Ride", even though I must admit hearing little boys singing Johnny Citron's bitter breakup song is a little unsettling...(although not as uncomfortable as when the Mini Pops sang ABBA's "Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man after Midnight)" yeeesh)

Of course, the bio on the record's back cover wants us to believe The Bantams play all their instruments. Sure Warner Brothers, sure.

The Bantams appeared with their kid sister in the 1967 movie "The Cool Ones" (soundtrack by Lee Hazlewood!), with Roddie McDowall. I have a very worn out copy of this movie so I'm hoping one day it will be released on DVD.



And finally, here are two tracks from a Belgian series of records called "Le Hit-Parade des enfants" that mostly contained your usual traditional children's songs. I remember renting these at our village library when I was a child! Two Plastic Bertrand songs found their way in there, the incomparable classic "Ça plane pour moi" and "Le Petit Tortillard".
Happy New Year! Next post: Kiki!


The Bantams - Susie Q
The Bantams - Ticket to Ride
The Bantams - Over You
Hit-Parade des enfants - Ça plane pour moi
Hit-Parade des enfants - Le petit tortillard

This post and its songs are archived at À la carte

Kiddie a Go-Go post #3: UK's Ricky Wilde

I am on X-Mas holiday and so here I am with a few more posts than usual!

Continuing on our Rock n' roll children's theme, I figured it would be nearly impossible to not post about Ricky Wilde. Ricky Wilde is the tops! In fact, this is so good, every other "kiddie a Go-Go" posting I will do after this will pale in comparison. But it's just so great, I couldn't wait until the end!

Born November 6, 1961 in the UK, Ricky was/is the brother of singer Kim Wilde, and the son of Marty Wilde.

This was his first single released in 1972 (at the age of 11), called "I Am An Astronaut" with the freakin' fantastic B-Side "The Hertfordshire Rock". Both these songs are so great that I'm amazed they didn't do well. Was it because they were sung by a child? What the hell is wrong with you, world?!

"I am an Astronaut" has that innocent quality mixed with superb Bowie-esque arrangements and is just a great tune on its own. "The Hertfordshire Rock" is its evil rock and roll B-Side with intense guitars and lyrics no one can really make out (or is that just me?). If only René Simard would have gotten quality tunes like these!


Anyhoo, other later titles by Ricky included the quality glam tunes "I Wanna Go to a Disco" and "Teen Wave" (both my favorite of his). Unfortunately, things didn't go so well for Ricky saleswise and stardom did not come a-knockin' at the door in the UK, but he did find a fan base in Sweden (where this single originates from - thanks Sasha!).

Ricky Wilde produced his sister's mega hit song "Kids in America" and continued to work in the music industry as a songwriter and producer. I sincerely hope you enjoy these!

Photo of young Ricky taken from Pop45

Ricky Wilde - I am an Astronaut
Ricky Wilde - The Hertfordshire Rock

This post and its songs are archived at À la carte