Therion - Poupée de cire, poupée de son

Here's an older post that's popular again right now, so, worth moving it up. Did a bit of an update too, still completely and utterly awesome.

After Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son and L'Amour Est Bleu I really hope the band someday will discover the Gainsbourg Genius that is Boum Bada Boum by Minouche Barrelli.

(From 2012) Here's something completely and utterly awesome. Swedish Symphonic metal band Therion, formerly known as Megatherion, have released their 15th(!) album and it's a collection of French 60's and 70's songs including some well known classics (and quite a few obscure gems). The classiest of classics is of course Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son*.

The album is out in October 2012 and is titled Les Fleurs Du Mal (The flowers of evil).
There are two versions of the 1965 Eurovision classic on the CD along with unforgettables like La Maritza (Sylvie Vartan), Polichinelle (Another France Gall hit), Initials B.B. (Serge Gainsbourg) and Les Sucettes (One of the biggest hits for the Gall/Gainsbourg Tandem)**.
See below for the full tracklist and details on the singers who originally recorded the songs.

You can buy the album (and the 2016 EP below) through the Therion website here.
Therium founder Christofer Johnsson is taking a massive risk with this unusual clash of Metal, Opera and YèYe album by financing the project himself, so please support them and Buy It.

2016 update 
Therion have also tackled L'Amour Est Bleu (Love is blue), the 1967 entry by Vicky Leandros.
It's on the EP Les Épaves, which was recorded in 2012, so I guess the tracks just didn't make it to the Fleurs album. But the tracks don't sound like leftovers. Go find it in you favorite record store or digitessen.

There are two versions of Vicky's Eurovision classic on the EP. Les Épaves was also released on limited edition vinyl 10 inch and cdsingle. Tracklist below.
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* You know by know: Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son is the 1965 Eurovision winner for Luxembourg performed by France Gall and written by Serge Gainsbourg
** Only the version of the album sold at the live shows and the Japanese edition have the bonus track Les Sucettes. - Thank you Gabriel, see comments

Therion have uploaded several clips from the Fleurs album to their Youtube channel. Next to Poupée there are videos of Initials B.B.,  Mon Amour, Mon Ami  of Je N'ai Besoin Que De Tendresse and one of J'ai Le Mal De Toi.

Therion website, Facebook
Also check out Lori Lewis (Therion singer) website.
And ABBA fans: here's a video of Therions take on Summer Night City from their 2001 album Secret Of The Runes.
Special thanks to Olaf and Gabriel. Please see comments.

Les Tracks

Here’s the full tracklist of the Les Fleurs Du Mal album. I did some digging on the net and found most of the original singers.

1. Poupée De Cire, Poupée The Son (France Gall, 1965)

2. Une Fleur Dans Le Coeur (Victoire Scott, 1968)

3. Initials B.B (Serge Gainsborg, 1968)

- Of course the B.B. initials stand for Brigitte Bardot

4. Mon Amour, Mon Ami (Marie Laforet, 1967)

- Written by legendary Eurovision winning songsmiths André Popp and Claude Marnay.  

5. Polichinelle (France Gall, 1967)

6. La Maritza (Sylvie Vartan, 1968)

7. Soeur Angelique (Annie Philippe, 1966)

8. Dis-Moi Poupée (Isabelle, 1967)

9. Lilith (Léonie, 1972) - see comments, thank you Fabio

10. En Alabama (Léonie, 1971)

11. Wahala Manitou (Léonie, 1971)

- Both Leonie tracks originally appeared on the same single. Source : discogs

12. Je N'ai Besoin Que De Tendresse (Claire Dixon, 1967)

13. La Licorne D'or (Victoire Scott, 1968)

14. J'ai Le Mal De Toi (Betty Mars, 1974)

- Betty Mars is the French 1972 Eurovision singer.
- This  J'ai Le Mal De Toi is not the 1964 Colette Dereal song. 

15. Poupée De Cire, Poupée The Son

16. Les Sucettes (France Gall, 1966)

Sources :Discogs, Youtube and record collection of yours truly.

Les Épaves
1. L'amour est bleu (heavy version) (Vicky Leandros cover)

2. Nous ne sommes pas des anges (France Gall cover)
3. La fermeture éclair (Delphine cover)
4. Ah-Hem-Ho-Hu-Err (Christine Pilzer cover)
5. L'amour est bleu (mellow version) (Vicky Leandros cover)

Angelina I Els Moderns - Canto I Vull Viure

Here's a bit of Catalonian Retro fun for all to be enjoyed.

Angelina and her Modern Boys do not only have the looks, but also have the tunes to go with it.

On their eponymous 2009 album they treat us to Nina De Cera, a Catalan version of Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son (Luxembourgs 1965 winner by France Gall). You can listen to the full album here at their website.

GRAN RESERVA

Also on their website is a section called Gran Reserva in which they present some unreleased songs and you can even download them. One of the songs is Canto I Vull Viure, which is their take on the Catalan version of the 1969 Spanish Eurovision (co)winner Vivo Cantando originally by Salomé.

You can download that one here at the Gran Reserva download page (just rightclick on the title and save).

(or just have a listen here)

Angelina I Els Moderns - links and sources

Website - Myspace - Facebook - Youtube

Note From The Editor
All links to uploaded songs at Eurocovers have been deleted as my uploader has terminated my account for copyright infringement.
I can understand their point of view and bear no grudge against them, but to the petty little weazels who scour the internet just to be able to snitch for a few pennies: I hope your children will be ugly.

I won't be creating a new account, so from now on Eurocovers will only feature news, release info and links to websites with content that is legal and interesting for the Eurocovers reader.
All the Eurocovers posts, stories, discographies etcetera, stay up and I hope you'll still enjoy the read.
It was great while it lasted, wasn't it?

The Baku Weeks, part 1 and only

Since Eurovision 2007 Eurocovers readers are used to the So And So weeks highlighting the Eurovision history of the organizing country through coverversions of their greatest hits and by their popular singers.

No such luck this year, as Azerbaijans Eurovision History is short and I haven't found any Azerbaijani Eurocovers artists except the one that was already featured in 2008 Muslim Magomaev (1942-2008), when Azerbaijan entered the Eurovision family.

Below is a re-hash of that 2008 article with a few alterations.

Also check out
The Finweeks
The Belgrade Weeks
The Moscow Weeks
The Oslo Weeks
The Düsseldorf Weeks - German Classics
The Baku Collection, all about the cds, versions, charts of Eurovision 2012.
All about the releases of Azerbaijans first 4 entries in a Baku Collection special

If you know any Eurocovers from Azerbaijan (excluding live clips and youtube amateurs) please let me know.


Here's the 2008 article about Azerbaijani/Soviet singer Muslim Magomaev, the only Azerbaijani artist I know that has recorded Eurovision songs.

2008: welcomes Azerbaijan to the Eurovision stage.

The list of countries for Eurovision 2008 counts 43 and there's again two newcomers on the Eurovision stage. San Marino and Azerbaijan. Austria opts out for 2008.
Eurocovers of course tries to find any excuse to present some songs here but so far I haven't been able to find any version sung in Azerbaijani (or Azeri-Turkish, check your wiki's).
If anyone knows any, just let me know….

But this is close, Muslim Magomaev (Müslüm Maqomayev, Муслим Магомаев, 1942-2008) is a classical singer (baritone) who was born in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, in 1942, USSR times.
He shares his name with his grandfather, legendary composer Muslim Magomaev (1885 - 1937), who was a pioneer of Azerbaijani music. His father was a painter and war hero, his mother an actress. Magomaev Jr. started as a classical singer but after a performance in Italy he also turned to popular music. Since he has recorded Italian and Russian versions of many Italian songs including several San Remo entries and (other) songs by Domenico Modugno. Later he was dubbed the Soviet Sinatra.

In 1966 and 1969 Muslim Magomaev performed in Paris Olympia with great success. The director of Olympia Bruno Coquatrix offered him a contract, and Muslim Magomaev was seriously considering an opportunity to pursue international career, but he didn't get the Ministry of Culture's permission, who claimed that it needed Muslim Magomaev to perform at governmental concerts. In 1969 he received MIDEM Gold Disc Award in Cannes for the album sales of over 4,5 million units. In 1973, at the very young age of 31, Muslim was awarded the Soviet Union's highest artistic title: People's Artist of the USSR. Muslim Magomaev is also known as a composer of songs, film soundtracks and music for theater performances. In addition, Magomaev played in films and acted as a host in television and radio broadcasts.

Muslim Magomaev has been living and working in Moscow since the early 1970s. In 1997, in recognition of Magomaev's professional successes, a Russian astronomical society named two planetoids of the solar system in honor of him and his wife, Tamara Sinyavskaya, a prominent Russian opera singer who was also awarded People's Artist of the USSR and worked as a soloist at the Bolshoi Theater. (source: Magomaev Website)
At his website (in English and Russian) you can read more and listen to a large selection of his songs: classical music, songs by Azerbaijani composers, western popular songs, film themes and many self composed works.

ADDED Muslim Magomaev, died on October 25, 2008 at the age of 66, nine months after the original article was compiled.

Magomaev Eurocovers.
So far I have found two Eurocovers by Muslim Magomaev. Both are entries from 1965, the year of his visit to Milan, Italy.

Se Piangi, Se Ridi (Italian)
- Italy 1965, originally by Bobby Solo
Voskovaya Kukla (Восковая кукла, Russian)
- Luxembourg 1965, France Galls Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son.

I don't have any details on the release of Se Piangi Se Ridi, but Poupée…. was issued on a Melodija 4 track EP (33ГД-0001045-2, picture) and a compilation LP of the same year, Vsem kto lyubit pesnyu (No3)  / Всем, Кто Любит, Песню (№ 3)

The third song featured is Non Pensare A Me, the 1967 SanRemo winner that was replaced at the rehearsing stages of the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna.*

♫ Poupée - Se Piangi - Non Pensare

* Non Pensare A Me was the 1967 San Remo winner by both Iva Zanicchi and Claudio Villa. Villa was supposed to sing it as the Italian Eurovision entry but the song had to be replaced just days before the contest because it broke the release rules (i.e. it was released to early). Instead, Claudia Villa represented Italy with Non Andare Piu Lontano, but Non Pensare A Me was the hit (mainly for Zannichi) and is covered by most artists that were in the business of covering popular Italian songs (Connie Francis, Andre Hazes, Yukari Ito, Agnaldo Timoteo, José Guardiola).
Of Non Andare Piu Lontano I only ever found one coverversion (by Los Catinos)

Arcade fire release Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son on 7"single.

In the Eurocovers post about Poupée De Cire Poupée De Son I already mentioned that Arcade Fire covers the France Gall hit from the top 10 most Eurovision songs in their live shows.
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Good news and bad news. The song will get a release on a split 7" inch single (other side by LCD Sound System) but the limited edition vinyl will only be available at their US tour gigs starting in september. (that'll be e-bay then for most of us)
Check the tour dates at http://www.arcadefire.net/ and see the video at YouTube.

Another great version of the song by Supersansplomb from Belgium can be heard on their MySpace. LINK RESTOREDA Dutch coverversion of Poupée... will be released in the Netherlands next month. It's on Spinvis forthcoming CD Goochelaars en geesten (Magicians & Spirits), a collection of rarities, previously unreleased stuff and other oddities. The song is titled Was (Wax).

10.000: # 10 Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son (1965)

Top 10 Eurocovers
In the previous post you can read all about the 10.000 coverversions project and the top 10 of Eurocovers, now it's time to share some thoughts on my favorite versions of the most covered Eurovision songs of all time.

# 10 - Poupée de cire, poupée de son
- France Gall - 155 versions listed
-The ultimate French Yé Yé girl - pop chanteuse France Gall's Eurovision performance is a defining moment in Eurovision history. Poupée is the first successful Pop song in the contest and her charming sexy performance wowed television audiences all over the world.
Serge Gainsbourg, French legend, wrote the song that is at # 10 in the top 10 most covered Eurovision songs. It's one of those songs I could sing (in my own language, carbon dating alert!) before I even knew Eurovision existed. France Gall won the contest for Luxembourg.

How to pick a favorite version? The 60's beat versions are as charming as the alt-rock versions made in recent years. And there are a few Eurovision stars who have recorded their version of the song: Gitte, Karina, Conchita Bautista, Mrs. Einstein, Madalena Iglesias and Lill Babs.
Not many superstars recorded the song though, the most famous I could find are Sacha Distel (with Dubstar), Belle and Sebastian or Kim'Kay. And of course it's a popular live track of todays 'everyones new favorite band' Arcade Fire.

There are versions in (at least) 19 languages with an impressive following in Japanese and Vietnamese.
With 19 versions in Japanese listed (and several in French by Japanese artists) 夢見るシャンソン人形 - Yume Miru Chanson Ningyo is one of the songs with the most Japanese covers to its name (with L'amour est bleu and Dio come ti amo). My favorite version is the one by Minami Saori (pic left) , recorded in 1972.
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The 10.000 feature 8 versions in Vietnamese of which the version by Mỹ Tâm is the most recent hit version (2003).


南沙織 - 夢見るシャンソン人形
------ Minami Saori a.k.a Cynthia-ly
- on CD '28 singles', recording from 1972
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Mỹ Tâm - Búp bê không tình yêu
- CD Hãy đến với em - The Best Of My Tam 2.



Previous Poupée… Posts: Star Sisters from Estonia and Anne-Lie Rydé from Sweden

France Gall at BeaRecords