Yé-yé was a style of pop music that emerged from Southern Europe in the early 1960s. The term “yé-yé” was derived from the English term “yeah! yeah!”, popularized by British bands such as the Beatles. The style expanded worldwide as the result of the success of figures such as French singer-songwriters Sylvie Vartan, Serge Gainsbourg and Francoise Hardy. Yé-yé was a particular form of counterculture that derived most of its inspiration from British and American rock and roll. Additional stylistic elements of yé-yé song composition include baroque, exotica, pop, jazz and the French chanson.
The yé-yé movement had its origins in the radio program ‘Salut les Copains’ (loosely translated as “hello mates” or “hello pals”), created by Jean Frydman which was first aired in December 1959. The program became an immediate success, and one of its sections, “Le chouchou de la semaine” (“This Week’s Sweetheart”), became the starting point for most yé-yé singers. Any song that was presented as a chouchou went straight to the top places in the charts. France Gall, for example, was only sixteen years of age when she released her first album and seventeen when she won the Eurovision Song Contest (for Luxembourg) singing the prototype bubblegum song ‘Poupée de cire, poupée de son’ (which translates as “Wax Doll, Singing Doll”).
Among the yé-yé girls, Sylvie Vartan had perhaps the most glamorous image. She married rock star Johnny Hallyday in 1965 and toured in America and Asia, but she remained a yé-yé at heart, and as late as 1968 she recorded the song “Jolie Poupee” (“Pretty Doll”), about a girl who regrets having abandoned her doll after growing up. Here she is singing an earlier hit from 1963/4 – ‘La Plus Belle Pour Aller Danser’ (Tonight I’ll be the most beautiful for dancing).
Finally let us re-visit Francois Hardy for one more song, appropriately, Comment te dire adieu (It is hard to say goodbye)
