I had been in Paris for three weeks when I received a telephone call from Lee Hallyday, the brother of Johnny Hallyday, the biggest rock star in France and in French-speaking countries. I was asked to return to London to do backing vocals on Johnny’s new album and help the other backing vocalists with the French pronunciation. It was definitely advantageous to be bilingual.
I was very excited because I felt it was my chance to return and work in England. Once back in London, it was great to see Doris Troy and Madeline Bell again. We started right away to record on Johnny’s album Flagrant Delit.
The album was soon completed at London’s Olympic Studios and Johnny asked us if we would like to go back to France to sing backing vocals on his tour, and asked me if I would open the show for him. I accepted right away, and I knew that the opportunity to open for Johnny Hallyday would be a terrific break for me in France.
So, I was on my way back to Paris.
The Palais des Sports was one of the first shows we did when we got back. The last time that Johnny performed there, Jimi Hendrix opened the show for him.
Johnny nicknamed Doris, Madeline, and me “The Delta Ladies French Style.” The band consisted of some of the finest musicians that could be had at the time: Tommy Brown, leader and on drums; Micky Jones on guitar (later to form the group Foreigner); Gary Wright (ex Spooky Tooth); Pat Donalson, Jerry Donahue, and Rolling Azoulay. When my brother Billy graduated high school and came to visit me in Paris, Johnny asked him to join the band as rhythm guitarist. We all became a family as we toured for many months all over Europe, Africa, and Tahiti.
While in France I had the fortunate opportunity to work with many well-known French artists including Michel Colombier, Eddie Vartan, Francis Lai, and producer/director Claude Lelouch. I recorded several songs for film scores and sang on albums for Colombier et Francis Lai.
We stopped touring for a while and I had the time to record an album in English and two French singles produced by Johnny for his label, “H.” The singles were released during the time I was in France, but the album only saw the light of day after I returned later to Quebec.
I continued performing with Johnny and doing promotion for my singles, one of which was a duet with him: Apprendre à Vivre Ensemble, the French version of Joe Cocker’s Learning to Live Together. Both the duet and the other single, Fleur Deracinée, can be seen on YouTube.
I went back to London to record the English album, Grits and Cornbread, where I had the tremendous opportunity to work once again with exceptional people. Johnny had hired cream-of-the-crop musicians in London to play on my album, and I was back at Olympic Studios to work with Chris Kimsey, the engineer for the Rolling Stones, and Peter Frampton, Gary Wright, Andy Bown (The Herd), Bobby Keyes, and Jim Price. Four of the songs on the album were penned by me; the remaining songs were composed by Peter Frampton, Andy Bown, Gary Wright, and Keith Richards.
I remained in England for a while and then returned to France to continue touring with Johnny. Soon after, though, for personal reasons I decided to leave France. I cannot go into the intimate details of my life in this column, but the whole story is told in my personal biography, Rock et Romance.
During the last months in Paris, I met up with Angelo Finaldi and Richard Tate of the group La Revolution Francaise. They had come to London where they had been offered to work with Led Zepplin’s manager, Peter Grant. But that didn’t work out for them, so they came to Paris. We tried to put a band together, but that didn’t work out either, so the three of us returned to Quebec.