Gilles Marchal

Gilles Marchal (2 September 1944 – 11 April 2013), born Gilles Pastre, was a French songwriter and singer who reached the height of his career during the 1970s.

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). One of Marchal's greater successes, "Un étranger dans la ville", is a version of "Everybody's Talkin'" by Fred Neil. (Harry Nilsson sang the original version for the credits of John Schlesinger's film Midnight Cowboy.)

Marchal also sang "Je suis né sous une étoile filante" (a Lerner and Loewe song translated to French by Mr. Vidalin) and "Buddy River" (a Lee Hazlewood song translated by Vline Buggy and Yves Dessca). The success of these two singles during the summer of 1970 propelled Marchal to the front of the French music scene and to first place in the hit parade. In 1971, "Liberté" by Charles Orieux and Jean-max Riviere was also an immense success for him reaching No.5 in the French charts on 25th March 1972.

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").

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