He often visited the Hot Club de France to hear the quintet of Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt.

He became a pianist at "L'Étape" club in rue Godot-de-Mauroy, Paris, where his half-hour sets alternated with the young Louis de Funès, also at the start of his career.

[2] In 1952 Alan Morrison, a visitor to Barclay's club, had invited him to visit the US to see the new recording technology that enabled the production of 45s and LPs.

After selling 1.5 million copies of the Platters' "Only You", Barclay Records rose to become the top music production company in France.

His francophone discoveries included the singers Hugues Aufray, Michel Delpech, Dalida (whom he launched in 1956), Mireille Mathieu, Claude Nougaro, and Eddy Mitchell.

Anarchist poet Léo Ferré was another established singer-songwriter who joined Barclay Records to great mutual benefit.

He refused to sign Bob Marley, ended his collaboration with Pierre Perret and dropped Michel Sardou, four years after discovering him, by telling him "My little old fellow, write songs if you want, but especially do not sing them.

At the beginning of the eighties, recovering from cancer of the throat, which had been diagnosed in 1979, he sold 80% of his label to PolyGram,[1] and retired to Saint-Tropez, where he had spent 25 years building a house called Maison du Cap, Ramatuelle, since Brigitte Bardot persuaded him to buy land there in the late 1950s.

He co-wrote the songs Quand tu m'embrasses with Charles Aznavour, and Le rock de Monsieur Failair with Boris Vian.