Eddie Barclay
Encyclopedia
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...
music producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
whose singers included Jacques Brel
Jacques Brel
Jacques Brel was a Belgian singer-songwriter who composed and performed literate, thoughtful, and theatrical songs that generated a large, devoted following in France initially, and later throughout the world. He was widely considered a master of the modern chanson...
and Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour, OC is an Armenian-French singer, songwriter, actor, public activist and diplomat. Besides being one of France's most popular and enduring singers, he is also one of the best-known singers in the world...
. He founded Barclay Records
Barclay Records
Barclay Records is a French record label founded in the mid-1950s by Eddie Barclay under the alias, Edouard Ruault. Eddie Barclay also founded the Riviera label in the early-1950s....
.
Life
Born Edouard Ruault the son of a café waiter and a post office worker in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
on January 26, 1921, he spent much of his early childhood with his grandmother in Taverny
Taverny
Taverny is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.Inhabitants are called Tabernacians.-History:...
(in today's Val-d'Oise
Val-d'Oise
Val-d'Oise is a French department, created in 1968 after the split of the Seine-et-Oise department and located in the Île-de-France region. In local slang, it is known as "quatre-vingt quinze" or "neuf cinq"...
). His parents bought the Café de la Poste bar in the middle of Paris while he was a child and at the age of 15 he left school to work in the café. He had not enjoyed his studies but he taught himself music and piano. He particularly liked American jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and embraced the music of Fats Waller
Fats Waller
Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...
. He often visited the Hot Club de France to hear the quintet of Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli was a French jazz violinist who founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands....
and Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...
.
He became a pianist at L'Étape club in rue Godot-de-Maury, Paris where his half-hour sets alternated with the young Louis de Funès
Louis de Funès
Louis Germain David de Funès de Galarza was a very popular French actor who is one of the giants of French comedy alongside André Bourvil and Fernandel...
, also at the start of his career. When the German occupiers of France banned jazz, he held regular social gatherings with other zazou
Zazou
The Zazous were a subculture in France during World War II. They were young people expressing their individuality by wearing big or garish clothing and dancing wildly to swing jazz and bebop...
s at his home to listen to jazz records, and illegal radio stations. Pierre-Louis Guérin employed him as a pianist at Guérin's first nightclub, Le Club.
With the liberation in 1944 and consequent fashion for American music, Ruault changed his name to Eddie Barclay. Under this new name he married Michèle, the first of his nine wives, in 1945. His friends included Boris Vian
Boris Vian
Boris Vian was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer. He is best remembered today for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of their...
, Henri Salvador
Henri Salvador
Henri Salvador was a French Caribbean singer.-Biography:Salvador was born in Cayenne, French Guiana. His father, Clovis, and his mother, Antonine Paterne, daughter of a native Indian from the Caribbean, were both from Guadeloupe, French West Indies...
, and Michel Legrand
Michel Legrand
Michel Jean Legrand is a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist...
. He launched what he claimed to be the first discothèque, Eddie's Club, based on the American clubs that had opened to serve US military personnel, and started his own band in 1947. The band included Harry Cooper (trumpet), Jean-Pierre Sasson (electric guitar), Bobby Guidott (bass), and Eve Williams (vocals). Eve, whose real name was Nicole, would become his second wife. The band were to accompany Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, 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...
, Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
, Sacha Distel
Sacha Distel
Sacha Distel was a French singer and guitarist who had hits with a cover version of the Academy Award-winning "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" , "Scoubidou", and "The Good Life". He was born in Paris.-Career:Sacha Distel, born Alexandre Distel, was a son of Russian White émigré Leonid Distel...
, and Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
, who became the artistic director of Barclay Records at the end of the 1950s. It was during this time that he met Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour, OC is an Armenian-French singer, songwriter, actor, public activist and diplomat. Besides being one of France's most popular and enduring singers, he is also one of the best-known singers in the world...
.
In 1949, with the help of Nicole, Barclay established Blue Star, his first record label, selling 78 rpm discs. The couple used their flat as a warehouse and used his scooter to make deliveries. Early records on the label were by Renée Lebas, Eddie Constantine
Eddie Constantine
Eddie Constantine was an American-born French actor and singer who spent his career working in Europe....
and Don Byas
Don Byas
Carlos Wesley "Don" Byas was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, long-resident in Europe.- Oklahoma and Los Angeles :...
. Nicole also helped him to found Jazz Magazine in 1954 with Boris Vian as the editor.
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. In 1955 Barclay agreed to manufacture and distribute Mercury Records
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
in Europe. He took 60 masters to Pathé-Marconi's Paris factory and began promoting the new microgroove format to the French market. As well as releasing US records by the likes of Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
, Dizzy Gillespie, Sammy Davis, Jr.
Sammy Davis, Jr.
Samuel George "Sammy" Davis Jr. was an American entertainer and was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities....
and Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, Barclay engaged Gerhard Lehner, a German sound engineer, to make original recordings in rue Hoche, Paris. After selling 1.5 million copies of The Platters
The Platters
The Platters were a vocal group of the early rock and roll era. Their distinctive sound was a bridge between the pre-rock Tin Pan Alley tradition and the burgeoning new genre...
' Only You, Barclay Records rose to become the top music production company in France. His success led to his nickname as "roi du microsillon" (king of microgroove).
His Francophone discoveries included the singers Hugues Aufray
Hugues Aufray
Hugues Aufray is a French singer. He began his career singing in Spanish....
, Michel Delpech
Michel Delpech
Jean-Michel Delpech, known as Michel Delpech, is a French singer-songwriter.-Career:In 1963, he had his debut release hit "Anatole" on Disques Vogue...
, Dalida
Dalida
Dalida , born with Italian name of Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti, was a world-famous singer and actress born in Egypt with Italian origins but naturalised French with the name Yolanda Gigliotti. She spent her early years in Egypt amongst the Italian Egyptian community, but she lived most of her adult...
(whom he launched in 1956), Mireille Mathieu
Mireille Mathieu
Mireille Mathieu is a French chanteuse, and pop singer. Hailed in the French press as the successor to Édith Piaf, she has achieved great commercial success, recording over 1200 songs in nine different languages, with more than 120 million records sold worldwide.-Childhood to early...
, Claude Nougaro
Claude Nougaro
Claude Nougaro was a French songwriter and singer.Claude Nougaro was born in Toulouse to a respected French opera singer, Pierre Nougaro, and an Italian piano teacher, Liette Tellini. He was raised by his grandparents in Toulouse where he heard Glenn Miller, Édith Piaf and Louis Armstrong on the...
, and Eddy Mitchell
Eddy Mitchell
Eddy Mitchell is a French singer and actor. He began his career in the late 1950s, with the group Les Chaussettes Noires , taking his name from the American expatriate tough-guy actor Eddie Constantine...
. His artistes delighted in the artistic freedom that he afforded them, and in the trust that he placed in their judgement.
Aznavour joined the Barclay stable in 1956 even though they had been friends for over a decade by that time. They collaborated on some songwriting including Quand Tu M'Embrasses (When You Hold Me). Brel, the Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
poet-singer who stayed with Barclay until his death in 1978, began his long association with Barclay in 1962, recording hits including Le Plat Pays (The Flat Country), and Les Bigotes (The Holier-than-thous) on the Barclay label. Brel left Philips Records
Philips Records
Philips Records is a record label that was founded by Dutch electronics company Philips. It was started by "Philips Phonographische Industrie" in 1950. Recordings were made with popular artists of various nationalities and also with classical artists from Germany, France and Holland. Philips also...
to join Barclay as did Juliette Gréco
Juliette Gréco
Juliette Gréco, — also Michelle – is a French actress and popular chanson singer.-Early life and family:Juliette Gréco was born in Montpellier to a Corsican father and a mother who became active in the Résistance, in the Hérault département of southern France. She was raised by her maternal...
. Philips threatened to litigate but the matter was settled out of court and Barclay released Johnny Hallyday
Johnny Hallyday
Johnny Hallyday is a French singer and actor. An icon in the French-speaking world since the beginning of his career, he was considered by some to have been the French Elvis Presley. He was married for 15 years to one of the most popular French female singers: Sylvie Vartan...
to Philips as part of the settlement. 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...
was another established singer-songwriter who joined Barclays Records to great mutual benefit.
Barclay's nose for success was not infallible, however: He refused to sign Bob Marley, ended his collaboration with Pierre Perret
Pierre Perret
Pierre Perret , is a French singer and composer. Pierre Perret resides in the city of Nangis.- Biography :...
and dropped Michel Sardou
Michel Sardou
Michel Sardou is a French singer.He was born in Paris, the son of Fernand Sardou and Jackie Rollin . Contrary to claims common towards the beginning of his career, he is not the grandson of the dramatist Victorien Sardou...
, four years after discovering him by telling him "My little old fellow, write songs if you want, but especially do not sing them. You do not have any talent!".
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
PolyGram
PolyGram was the name of the major label recording company started by Philips from as a holding company for its music interests in 1945. In 1999 it was sold to Seagram and merged into Universal Music Group.-Hollandsche Decca Distributie , 1929-1950:...
, and retired to Saint-Tropez
Saint-Tropez
Saint-Tropez is a town, 104 km to the east of Marseille, in the Var department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. It is also the principal town in the canton of Saint-Tropez....
, where he had spent 25 years building a house since Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is a French former fashion model, actress, singer and animal rights activist. She was one of the best-known sex-symbols of the 1960s.In her early life, Bardot was an aspiring ballet dancer...
persuaded him to buy land there in the late 1950s. His trademark was a white suit and his Saint-Tropez parties at which all the guests wore white became huge events for the French media. He emerged briefly from retirement with a new record label but it was not the success he wished.
In March 1994 Barclay underwent quadruple bypass surgery after a heart attack. On April 29, 2005 he was admitted to the Ambroise-Paré hospital in Paris with urinary and pulmonary infections. He died there during the night of May 12, 2005 and was pronounced dead in the morning. He has one son, Guillaume, from his third marriage.
Works
Barclay transcribed and interpreted early jazz numbers. He cowrote the songs Quand Tu M'Embrasses with Charles AznavourCharles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour, OC is an Armenian-French singer, songwriter, actor, public activist and diplomat. Besides being one of France's most popular and enduring singers, he is also one of the best-known singers in the world...
, and Le Rock de Monsieur Failair with Boris Vian
Boris Vian
Boris Vian was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer. He is best remembered today for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of their...
.
He wrote the original soundtracks for several films, including Bob le flambeur
Bob le flambeur
Bob le flambeur is a 1956 French gangster film directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. The film stars Roger Duchesne as Bob...
(English title: Bob the Gambler; one translation is "Bob the high roller") (1955) directed by Jean-Pierre Melville.
In 1988 he published his autobiography.
Wives
Barclay was notorious for his many wives to the extent that some journalists referred to him as 'Blue Beard'. At one of his later weddings, the officiating mayor of NeuillyNeuilly
Neuilly is a common place name in France, deriving from the male given name Nobilis or Novellius:...
said: "Ah, good day, Monsieur Barclay, what a pleasure to see you yet again." His nine wives were:
- Michele (2 years) married in 1945
- Nicole (14 years), jazz singer under the name of Eve Williams
- Marie-Christine (4 years)
- Béatrice (1.5 years) - she subsequently married Guy MarchandGuy MarchandGuy Marchand is a French actor, musician and singer. He is best known for his role as the main character in the French police procedural series Nestor Burma.- Filmography :* 1970 : Boulevard du Rhum, directed by Robert Enrico...
- Michele (briefly)
- Daniele (1 year)
- Cathy (3 years)
- Caroline (11 years) married in 1988
- Tiara, married in June 2002 on the island of Moorea.