Albert Willemetz was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 librettist

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

.

Albert Willemetz was a prolific lyricist. He invented a new type of musical, with a humorous and "sexy" style. He was the author of more than 3000 songs, including "Mon homme" (popularized in English as "My Man"), "Valentine," "Dans la vie faut pas s'en faire," "Les palétuviers," "Ramona," "Est-ce que je te demande," "Ah si vous connaissiez ma poule," "Amusez-vous," and "Félicie aussi"), more than 100 musicals (including Phi-Phi

Phi-Phi

Phi-Phi is an opérette légère in three acts with music by Henri Christiné and a French libretto by Albert Willemetz and Fabien Solar. The piece was one which founded the new style of French comédie musicale, the first to really use the latest rhythms of jazz along with a plot which emphasised...

, Ta Bouche, Là-Haut, Dédé

Dédé (opérette)

Dédé is an opérette or musical comedy in three acts with music by Henri Christiné and a French libretto by Albert Willemetz. It marked an important milestone in developing the career of Maurice Chevalier.-Performance history:...

, 3 jeunes filles nues, Florestan 1er, and Trois Valses), more than 100 revues (including seven with Sacha Guitry

Sacha Guitry

Alexandre-Pierre Georges Guitry was a French stage actor, film actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright of the Boulevard theatre.- Biography :...

), and work for films.

He worked with some of the notable musicians of his day, including André Messager

André Messager

André Charles Prosper Messager , was a French composer, organist, pianist, conductor and administrator. His stage compositions included ballets and 30 opéra comiques and operettas, among which Véronique, had lasting success, with Les p'tites Michu and Monsieur Beaucaire also enjoying international...

, Maurice Yvain, Arthur Honegger

Arthur Honegger

Arthur Honegger was a Swiss composer, who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. He was a member of Les six. His most frequently performed work is probably the orchestral work Pacific 231, which is interpreted as imitating the sound of a steam locomotive.-Biography:Born...

, Henri Christiné

Henri Christiné

Henri Marius Christiné was a French composer of Swiss birth.The son of a French Savoyard watchmaker, Christiné was born in Geneva, Switzerland. He began by teaching at the lycée in Geneva, while pursuing his interest in music and playing organ in a local church...

, Vincent Scotto

Vincent Scotto

Vincent Scotto was a French composer.-Biography:Vincent Scotto started his career in Marseille in 1906 and later moved to Paris. Over the course of a lifetime, he wrote 4,000 songs as well as sixty operettas. He was friends with Marcel Pagnol and wrote music for his films...

, Reynaldo Hahn

Reynaldo Hahn

Reynaldo Hahn was a Venezuelan, naturalised French, composer, conductor, music critic and diarist. Best known as a composer of songs, he wrote in the French classical tradition of the mélodie....

, Moretti

Moretti

Moretti may refer to:20th most common surname in Italy.-People:*Bob Moretti , Californian politician*Bruno Moretti, Italian composer and frequent collaborator with choreographer Mauro Bigonzetti....

, Moises Simons

Moisés Simons

Moisés Simons , was a leading Cuban composer, pianist and orchestra leader. He was the composer of the Peanut Vendor, possibly the most famous piece of music created by a Cuban musician...

, Van Parys, Szulc, Borel-Clerc, Oberfeld, Romberg, Lopez, Richepin, and Lattès.

Some of the singers who have sung his lyrics include Maurice Chevalier

Maurice Chevalier

Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, singer, entertainer and a noted Sprechgesang performer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including Louise, Mimi, Valentine, and Thank Heaven for Little Girls and for his films including The Love Parade and The Big Pond...

, Fanny Brice

Fanny Brice

Fanny Brice was a popular and influential American illustrated song "model," comedienne, singer, theatre and film actress, who made many stage, radio and film appearances and is known as the creator and star of the top-rated radio comedy series, The Baby Snooks Show...

, Yvonne Printemps

Yvonne Printemps

Yvonne Printemps was a French singer and actress.-Biography:Born Yvonne Wigniolle, she made her debut at the age of 12 in a revue at La Cigale in Paris. She was dancing at the Folies Bergère at age 13...

, Mistinguett, Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...

, Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...

, Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand

Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...

, Arletty, Joséphine Baker

Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker was an American dancer, singer, and actress who found fame in her adopted homeland of France. She was given such nicknames as the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and the "Créole Goddess"....

, Danièle Darrieux, Pauline Carton

Pauline Carton

Pauline Carton was a French film actress. She appeared in over 170 films between 1912 and 1970.-Selected filmography:* Le p'tit Parigot * The Blood of a Poet * High and Low...

, Fernandel, Bourvil, Dranem, Henri Garat, Victor Boucher

Victor Boucher

-Selected filmography:* The Train for Venice * Nine Bachelors * Ce n'est pas moi -External links:...

, Jean Gabin

Jean Gabin

-Biography:Born Jean-Alexis Moncorgé in Paris, he grew up in the village of Mériel in the Seine-et-Oise département, about 22 mi north of Paris. The son of cabaret entertainers, he attended the Lycée Janson de Sailly...

, Pierre Fresnay

Pierre Fresnay

Pierre Fresnay was a French stage and film actor.Born Pierre Jules Louis Laudenbach in Paris, France in 1897, he was encouraged by his uncle, the actor Claude Garry, to pursue a career in theater and film...

, Michel Simon

Michel Simon

Michel Simon , was a Swiss actor. The actor François Simon is his son.-Early years:...

 and Léo Ferré

Léo Ferré

Léo Ferré was a Franco-Monegasque poet, composer, singer and musician.Born in Monaco, Ferré mixed love and melancholy with moral anarchy, lyricism with slang, rhyming verse with prose monologues...

.

Additionally, Albert Willemetz served as Secretary to Clemenceau, the Director of the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens

Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens

The Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens is a Parisian theatre which was founded in 1855 by the composer Jacques Offenbach for the performance of opéra bouffe and operetta. The current theatre is located in the 2nd arrondissement at 4 rue Monsigny with an entrance at the back at 65 Passage Choiseul. In...

 for 30 years, and was President of the SACEM

SACEM

SACEM may refer to:* The Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique is a French professional association collecting payments of artists’ rights and distributing the rights to the original authors, composers and publishers...

 (from 1945), and CISAC

CISAC

CISAC may refer to:*Canberra International Sports and Aquatic Centre, a sport centre located in the ACT Australia*Comité International du Ski-Alpinisme de Compétition, former international committee of competition ski mountaineering...

 (1956). He was the only president of both organizations not to be able to read music. He died in Marnes-la-Coquette

Marnes-la-Coquette

Marnes-la-Coquette is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. Located from the center of Paris, the town is situated between the Parc de Saint-Cloud and the Forest of Fausses-Reposes...

, near Paris.

External links

• Official site