Franck Pourcel

 

Franck Pourcel was a French composer, arranger, and conductor of popular and classical music. Franck Pourcel was his real name: last name originally from Italy, first name a tribute to the composer, César Franck. He was born in Marseilles on August 11, 1913. His father was a technician but also a musician in the Navy in Marseilles. At six years old, he began learning music and his father sent him to study the violin at the Conservatoire de Marseilles, and drums, too, because he loved jazz. Then, he went to the Conservatoire in Paris. He then came back to Marseilles where he worked in theaters, one of them the Opera, and, at night, he played drums in nightclubs. This explains, how, later, his orchestrations were based on strings and percussions.

Franck Pourcel : The long and winding road

Biography

Early life

Born in Marseille, France, Pourcel started learning the violin at the age of six. Later, Pourcel studied violin at the Conservatoire in Marseille, and also drums because he loved jazz, and spent a year in Paris at the Conservatoire. By 1931, he was working as a violinist in several theaters in Marseille, marrying Odette eight years later. He then became the musical director for Lucienne Boyer, with whom he went on a world tour.

Franck Pourcel esegue i 14 motivi finalisti di Sanremo '72 nell'attesa dei risultati dalle giurie.

During that period, Franck was the musical director of some singers, among them Yves Montand, and he was hired for 3 months by Bruno Coquatrix, the future manager of the Olympia de Paris, to be the conductor of the famous singer Lucienne Boyer; in fact he stayed 8 years and toured the world with her. But he always had a dream: his own orchestra, which could freely express his musical feelings. He always worked toward this dream, but between the dream and the reality, it was very difficult: records companies were not keen on hiring 50 musicians! "At that time, creating an orchestra with 50 musicians sounded nuts, but I wanted it. After many refusals, I moved to United States."

Blue Tango

Career : recording

He immigrated to the United States in 1952 but returned to France the following year to record "Blue Tango" and the follow-up "Limelight". In 1954, Pourcel recorded his first album on the Pathé-Marconi record label, with whom he would record a total of nine albums in a three-year period. In 1956, he recorded his version of The Platters hit "Only You", which sold over three million copies by 1959, and was awarded a gold disc. It peaked at number 9 on the United States Billboard pop chart during a 16 weeks chart run.

Cuando Calienta El Sol

People took him immediately for an American, super quality label at that time, and instantly he became famous. It was the start of his long career, and all the French singers were eager to be accompanied by the American : Charles Aznavour, Tino Rossi, Gloria Lasso, Gilbert Bécaud, Yves Montand, Charles Trenet, Danielle Darrieux and, later, George Chakiris from West Side Story (1961). Between 1954 and 1957, he kept recording: 9 LPs in 3 years. He created the series, "Amour Danse et Violons", which include 54 LPs.

Franck Pourcel - Amour, Dance et Violons Nº 32. (1975 full album)

But the Americans had kept an eye on him, and he went back to Hollywood at Capitol to record albums dedicated to the American market, like Our Paris, French Touch, French Sax, French Wine-Drinking music and La Femme (composed by Les Baxter) with its graceful and scandalous nude cover. He became Franck Pourcel and the French Fiddlers, Franck Pourcel and his Parisians strings, or The Rockin' strings Orchestra In 1959, he recorded Only You, 2 years after the fantastic success of the title by The Platters. But arranging it à la Franck Pourcel he gave it a second youth. He sold more than 3 million copies, stayed on the Billboard charts for 16 weeks, and became the first European orchestra leader to sell more than 1 million records in the US.

Only You

In 1958, he recorded an LP with the Viennese's Waltzes, and then decided to lead his Variety public to the discovery and appreciation of popular classical pieces. With his Pages Celebres he leds the sale of EMI Classics, but he felt no special vanity from this, for he considered himself in the service of music. He recorded 17 LPs with the most famous classical orchestras like the London Symphony Orchestra, The London Philharmonic, The Lamoureux Orchestra, The BBC Orchestra. In 1979, following the evolution of the recording techniques, the series came to be called Classics in Digital.

Franck Pourcel Valses Vieneses CD completo 

A few of his musicians started a career on their own. Michel Legrand played piano, when he was young. In his orchestra he also had Raymond Lefebvre, Paul Mauriat and Jean-Claude Casadesus, at that time playing percussions in his classical recordings.

Adieu Jolie Candy

Conducting

Between 1956 and 1972, he was the conductor for France at the Eurovision Song Contest, with the exceptions of 1957 and 1968. Four of the songs that he conducted won first place for France. As a result, France became the most successful country in the contest's early years, until Luxembourg matched its four wins in 1973.

L' Orchestre De Franck Pourcel - The French Touch

By 1958, Pourcel started recording classical music. His series of Pages Célèbres led him to conduct the London Symphony Orchestra, The Society of Concerts for the Conservatoire, The BBC Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, and the Lamoureux Orchestra at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. In 1961, he co-composed with Paul Mauriat the hit "Chariot", which was recorded by Petula Clark and followed up by Peggy March as "I Will Follow Him". The song became the main theme for the film, Sister Act.

I Will Follow Him

His records have been exported to 58 countries. In 1975, Franck was asked by Air France to compose the Anthem for the new supersonic Concorde, because he was considered one of the 3 most exported French product with Brigitte Bardot and Air France.

Franck Pourcel Grand Orchestre - Concorde

He has composed some songs that he recorded, but rarely, because he did not liked his own compositions. The most famous, Chariot, started like a joke. It was composed with his friends, Paul Mauriat and Raymond Lefebvre, with lyrics by Jacques Plante. At that time, in 1962, everything coming from the US was striking gold, so they invented a story that the song was the soundtrack of a new western movie produced by 20th Century Fox : You'll never See It. Petula Clark sung the song and had a hit. In the USA, the song was recorded as "I Will Follow Him" by Little Peggy March, a fifteen-years-old singer, became number 1 in the Billboard charts all categories for 3 weeks, and, in 1992, the song became the main theme for Sister Act (1992) and Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993), with Whoopi Goldberg. More recently, Eminem included some bars in his song, "Guilty Conscience".

Franck Pourcel - Manchester et Liverpool

Pourcel recorded 250 albums, over 3000 songs, and he conducted famous orchestras such as London Symphonic Orchestra, BBC Orchestra and Orchestre des concerts Lamoureux. He created the series Amour Danse et violons (54 albums) and the classical series Pages Célébres. His first recordings from 1956 to 1962 were released under the series Originals.

From 1968, Franck worked with Claude-Michel Schonberg (now the composer of the Musicals "Les Miserables and Miss Saigon") then artistic director at Pathe-marconi EMI records. A personal and professional relationship started and Franck produced Claude-Michel's big hit Le Premier Pas and the following albums.

Pourcel recorded until 1995 with EMI.

Franck Pourcel And His Orchestra ‎- Franck Pourcel Meets The Beatles - Full Album 1972

He died on 12 November 2000 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, at the age of 87, from Parkinson's disease. His daughter Françoise Pourcel, is taking care of his musical legacy.

Franck Pourcel Orchestra - Beatles.Abba (album)