Gilles Marchal

[1] Discovered by Georges Chatelain, his producer, who signed (with Jack Robinson as a co-producer) a contract with Disc' AZ and Lucien Morisse, who was then the program director at Europe 1.

Most of his repertoire was original, but at the beginning of his career he performed a few interesting covers of songs by Lee Hazlewood and Fred Neil.

"Summer Wine", for example, which Lee Hazlewood originally sang with Nancy Sinatra, was covered by Marchal in 1969 in a duet with Martine Habib, a young singer whom he met at CBE Studios and whose voice is reminiscent of Joan Baez.

Marchal also chose to interpret the song in English; a French translation appeared this same year ("Le vin de l'été" by Marie Laforêt and Gérard Klein).

Marchal has written several songs, both solo ("Nous vivrons tous les trois", "Ne pleure pas ma mie") or with his friends and producers at CBE, George Chatelain and Bernard Estardy ("Dieu qu'elle était belle", "Quand je te regarde vivre").