One great thing about aging is that the teenaged/twentysomething notion of “guilty pleasures” eventually grinds itself into nothingness, until there’s only pleasure and no guilt. At least that’s true as far as music is concerned. Now I was never one of those schmoes who ultimately copped to some quiet Steely Dan or Fleetwood Mac obsession, but man did I fall hard for 1960s French female “Yé-Yé” pop in a big way about 25 years ago. I wear my Yé-Yé mania proudly, and I’ve enjoyed watching these loud, brassy and highly orchestrated French 45s find their way to new audiences and new compilations in the subsequent years. Feral House even put out a big beautiful book about it in 2014, Jean-Emmanuel Deluxe’s Ye-Ye Girls of ’60s French Pop, that hit me right where I live.

The purpose of this “wind it up and let it go” episode (with only one talking intro and no back announcing) is to help further Yé-Yé enthusiasm, such that it is, by pulling together the very best campy, silly and oftentimes moderately experimental 45s by glamorous French women (often girls) of the 60s. Usually there’s some Spector-esque soundboard svengali who’s intricately crafting these things as lovingly as any mid-60s US or UK radio hitmaker, and a young French woman with wide eyes, perfect hair and a terrific voice belting out songs with loud horns, garage guitars, keyboard squiggles and everything packed together tightly to make a song, fast and danceable – almost never over three minutes and sometimes under two. 

In some cases, the push and pull of the talented female and the overweening male producer/douchebag is the stuff of legend, as in the battles Clothilde – maybe the absolute sommet of them all – fought for creative control with her producer Germinal Tenas. It wasn’t the best time, shall we say, to be a woman in the entertainment industry, particularly not one traded upon for her looks first and voice second. Stuck as we are with cemented history to reckon with, we still thankfully have this music, and I love it to death. Here’s Dynamite Hemorrhage Radio #221 – the 60s French Yé-Yé Pop Edition.

Download Dynamite Hemorrhage Radio #221 at Apple Podcasts.
Stream Dynamite Hemorrhage Radio #221 on Mixcloud.
Stream or download Dynamite Hemorrhage Radio #221 on Soundcloud.

Track listing:

ALINE – Censure
CLOTHILDE – Faillets pas écraser la queue du chat
LIZ BRADY – Palladium
SHEILA – Papa t’es Dans L’Coup
ANNIE PHILIPPE – C’est la mode
OP4 – Attention Aux Garcons
CLAIRE DIXON – On M’appalle Petit Bout du Chou
PUSSY CAT – Les Temps Onts Change
DANIELLE DENIN – Je Lis Dans Tres Yeux
CHRISTINE PILZER – A-Hem-Ho-Hu-Err
ARIANE – Tu Vondrais que J’oublie
DANI – Le Fille a la Moto
ANOUK – Jimmy est Parti
JIJI – Le Chevalier
ARLETTE ZOLA – Mathematique Elementaire
VIOLAINE – Dam’ Dou Ah!
CLOTHILDE – 102, 103
STELLA – L’idole des Jounes
MARTHE HINNY – Oh! Oh! Oui Oui Oui…
CHRISTINE PILZER – Champs Elysees
ARIANE – Les Gemeaux
CHANTAL KELLY – Not Prof d’Anglais
PUSSY CAT – Ba Ba Ba…Boof
JOCY – Dans les Dix Premieres
BERTHE – Les Emberthements
CLAIRE DIXON – Je n’ai Besoin que de Bendresse
ELSA – C’est Bizarre
CHRISTINE LAUME – Rouge Rouge
CLEO – Madame la Terre
DELIZIA – J’ai Rendez-vous
VIOLAINE – J’ai des Problemes Deddements
DORINE – Peches a la Creme
LIZ BRADY – Bas les Pattes
CLOTHILDE – Je T’ai Voulu Et Je T’ai Bien Eu
ANNIE PHILIPPE – On Ma Toujours Dit
ANNA KARINA – Roller Girl