Les Chats Sauvages 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...

 rock and roll

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

 band

Musical ensemble

A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...

, that was formed in 1961. Together with Les Chaussettes Noires

Les Chaussettes Noires

Les Chaussettes Noires were a French rock and roll band founded in 1960, that was among the pioneer of rock music in France, together with Les Chats sauvages....

, they were among the first outfits to perform rock and roll music in France.

Career

Les Chats Sauvages was originally composed of Dick Rivers

Dick Rivers

Dick Rivers is a French singer and actor who has been performing since the early 1960s. He was an important figure in introducing rock and roll music in France. He is known for being an admirer of Elvis Presley, who highly influenced both his singing and looks...

 (Hervé Forneri) on vocals, John Rob (Jean-Claude Roboly) on guitar, James Fawler (Gérard Roboly) on guitar, Jack Regard (Gérard Jaquemus) on bass, and Willy Lewis (Wiliam Taïeb) on drums. The later was successively replaced by Armand Molinetti, Dean Shelton and Andre Ceccarelli.

In February 1961, the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 music magazine, NME

NME

The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

, reported that their concert

Concert

A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...

 at the Palais des Sports de Paris, whilst headlining with Vince Taylor

Vince Taylor

Vince Taylor was a British rock and roll singer. As the frontman for The Playboys, Taylor was successful primarily in France and the Continent during the late 1950s and early 1960s, afterwards falling into obscurity amidst personal problems and drug abuse.-Early life:Born Brian Maurice Holden,...

, had turned ito a full-scale riot.

The departure of Rivers in the summer of 1962, who was replaced by Mike Shannon, affected the band's popularity, which nevertheless continued its career. They charted

Record chart

A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....

 with the song "Derniers baisers", covered

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 with success by C. Jérôme

C. Jérôme

Claude Dhotel, better known by his stage name C. Jérôme, was a French singer that had a musical career of three decades and sold 26 million records and was particularly popular in the 1970s.In 1995, C...

 in 1986 and Laurent Voulzy

Laurent Voulzy

Laurent Voulzy is a French singer and composer.-Biography:Voulzy originally led the English-pop-influenced Le Temple de Vénus before joining Pascal Danel as guitarist from 1969 to 1974...

 in 2006.

In 1963, Jean Claude visited in New York with the group's American manager, Andre M. Lauffer, a New York attorney,for the purpose of "making the rounds" of the popular TV shows. They met with the Ed Sullivan Show producers and were promised consideration for a future appearance. Unfortunately, the laws for overseas entertainers were very restrictive and the group could not meet the requirements in effect at that time.

Les Chats Sauvages broke up in 1964, before briefly reappearing twice, including an album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 release in 1982 with Dick Rivers, to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of their formation.

Albums

• Les Chats Sauvages, Pathé-Marconi, 1961
• Les Chats Sauvages, Pathé-Marconi, 1962
• Les Chats Sauvages 1982, RCA, 1982
• Les Chats Sauvages Inédits & titres rares, (unreleased and rare tracks), Pathé-Marconi, 1987

Singles

• "Ma p'tite amie est vache" / "Le jour J" / "En avant l'amour" / "J'ai pris dans tes yeux" (Pathé, 1961)
• "Je veux tout ce que tu veux" / "Trois en amour" / "Toi l'étranger" / "Hey Pony" (Pathé, 1961)
• "Toi tu es bath pour moi" / "Dis-moi si c'est l'amour" / "Toi quel bonheur" / "Tu peins ton visage" (Pathé, 1961)
• "Sous le ciel écossais" / "Un p'tit je ne sais quoi" / "Les bras de l'amour" / "Laisse-moi rire" (Pathé, 1961)
• "Twist à Saint-Tropez" / "C'est pas sérieux" / "Oh Boy" / "Est-ce que tu le sais ?
  What'd I Say
  According to Charles' autobiography, "What'd I Say" was accidental when he improvised it to fill time at the end of a concert in December 1958. He asserts that he never tested songs on audiences before recording them, but "What'd I Say" is an exception...
  
  " (Pathé, 1961)
• "Laissez-nous twister" / "Un cœur tout neuf" / "L'amour que j'ai pour toi" (Pathé, 1962)
• "Je reviendrai" / "Tout ce qu'elle voudra" / "Toute la nuit" / "Oh Lady" (Pathé, 1962)
• "Sherry" / "Mon copain" / "Derniers baisers" / "Tout le monde twiste" (Pathé, 1963)
• "John, c'est l'amour" / "Horizon" / "Emmène-moi" / "Judy, rappelle-moi" (Pathé, 1963)
• "Générique de 'le roi du village'" / "Thème d'Agnès" / "Venez, les filles!" / "!Moïse twiste!" (Pathé, 1963)
• "Dis-lui que je t'aime" / "Une fille comme toi" / "Quelle nouvelle" / "Allons, reviens danser" (Pathé, 1963)
• "Laisse-moi chanter" / "O Valérie" / "Elle t'elle" / "Moins d'une minute" (Pathé, 1963)
• "Jolie Fille" / "Seul" / "La Route" / "Ericka" (Pathé EG 759 1964)
• "Merci" / "Je suis prêt" / "Obsession" / "Malgré tout ça" (Pathé, 1964)