Raymond Lefèvre

Raymond Lefèvre (20 November 1929 - 27 June 2008) was a French easy listening orchestra leader, arranger and composer. Born in Calais, France on November 20, 1929, LeFevre studied flute as a child and at 16 entered Paris' Conservatoire National de Musique, moonlighting as a jazz pianist in local clubs and cabarets. After a stint behind jazz bandleader Hubert Rostaing, LeFevre joined conductor Bernard Hilda's Club des Champs-Elysées orchestra. 

Raymond Lefevre & Orchestra - La reine de Saba (Live, 1987) 

Biography and career

Raymond Lefèvre is best known for his interpretation of the 1968 theme "Soul Coaxing (Ame Caline)" (composed by Michel Polnareff), which became an international hit. He also wrote soundtracks for movies with Louis de Funès such as La Soupe Aux Choux (1981) or the series Le Gendarme de Saint Tropez. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, he accompanied Dalida on most of her recordings (Bambino, Por Favor, Tu peux tout faire de moi, Quand on n'a que l'amour), amongst many others. He started his musical career in 1956 on the Barclay Records label. His recordings were released in the United States on the Kapp and Four Corners record labels until 1969.

Raymond Lefèvre : Compare listening to the original song 

Early career

He was accepted at the Paris Conservatory when 17 years old. During the early 1950s he played the piano for the Franck Pourcel orchestra. In 1953 he played the piano at the Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. He started his musical career in 1956 on the Barclay label and recorded his debut album that year. He worked on the French television programmes Musicorama (1950s) and Palmarés des Chansons (1965, 1966, 1967) accompanying such famous artists as Dalida, Claude François, Richard Anthony, with his own orchestra.

Raymond Lefevre - Viens Viens

He established himself as a composer and arranger during a lengthy tenure as a Barclay Records staffer, concurrently serving six years behind Egyptian born singer Dalida and in 1957 scoring the first of more than a dozen films with director Guillaume Radot, Fric-Frac en Dentelles. A year later, LeFevre notched a minor U.S. hit with his interpretation of Gilbert Bécaud's "Le Jour Ou La Pluie Viendra," retitled "The Day the Rains Came" for American consumption.

Raymond Lefevre - La Maison Est En Ruine

His recording of "The Day the Rains Came" was a best seller in the United States in 1958. The song "Ame câline" (Soul Coaxing) became an international hit in 1968 and "La La La (He Gives Me Love)" - an instrumental adaptation of 1968's Eurovision Song Contest's winning song by Spanish singer Massiel - was a minor hit in 1968 in Canada and the United States. In 1969, his recording of "La Reine de Saba" (Queen of Sheba) became a big hit in Japan. From 1972 until the early 2000s, he undertook several successful tours of Japan.

Raymond Lefèvre ~ Concerto pour une voix

Raymond Lefèvre gave Paul Mauriat a run for his money in the easy listening instrumentals biz, as the two kept pushing tunes into the Top 40 charts in the late 1960s. Mauriat grabbed the only #1 instrumental of the period with "Love is Blue," but Lefèvre beat him out in several Eurovision song contests and had several other big hits with "La La La (He Gives Me Love)," "Soul Coaxing," "Puppet on a String," and "A Whiter Shade of Pale."

Raymond Lefèvre - Bambino

Lefèvre's easy listening version of Gilbert Becaud's "The Days the Rain Came" briefly hit the U.S. Top 40 list in 1958, but most of the time, Lefevre was focused on French audiences. He arranged and conducted nearly as many albums for the French label, Barclay, as Percy Faith did for Columbia/CBS in the U.S. Unlike Mauriat and Franck Pourcel, Lefèvre stuck for the most part to standard easy listening orchestrations, and Lefèvre was less likely to incorporate rock rhythms or rhythm sections.

Raymond Lefèvre - Palmares Des Chansons [1968]

While scoring the 1964 feature Faites Sauter La Banque!, LeFevre first collaborated with fellow easy listening maestro Paul Mauriat, his greatest commercial rival in the years to follow. While Mauriat scored the biggest instrumental hit of the period with the chart-topping "Love Is Blue," LeFevre's lush symphonic approach was a fixture on the European pop charts throughout the '60s as consumer demand for stereo recordings guaranteed impressive sales for singles including "La La La (He Gives Me Love)," "Puppet on a String," and "A Whiter Shade of Pale." 

1989 Raymond Lefèvre in Japan (TV version)

He scored his biggest hit in 1968 when composer Michel Polnareff's haunting "Ame Câline" (aka "Soul Coaxing") emerged as a staple on pirate station Radio Caroline, and while his commercial fortunes dwindled in the decade to follow, LeFevre remained a ubiquitous presence in French cinema, winning widespread acclaim for the 1971 thriller score Jo. He also continued recording until 2001, enjoying his greatest commercial renown in Japan. LeFevre died in Seine-Port, France on June 27, 2008.

Raymond Lefevre [Best Collection 01]