User:DFMNE404/Le Chanteur (album)

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Le Chanteur is the third studio album of Daniel Balavoine, released in June of 1978 by Barclay via Riviera-LM Records. AT the time of the release, Balavoine struggled to reach success after two previous albums he recorded failed. Thanks to the perseverance of his friend and mentor Léo Missir, who defended him since the beginning, he registered this third opus in April of 1978 in a studio in Boulogne-Billancourt with a thought of stopping everything if this is another failure. Two single are released as extracts to promote the album, Le Chanteur (song) and Lucie. The commercial success of Le Chanteur allows Balavoine to gain recognition in the public and the sales of the album to pass 800,000 copies  , was the second best album sold in France after Sauver l'amour (1986).

Context
In 1978, Daniel Balavoine is 26 years old. AT this time, he already published two albums De vous à elle en passant par moi and Les Aventures de Simon et Gunther..., that barely sold despite the success of Lady Marlène, an extract from Les Aventures de Simon et Gunther. Balavoine needs to sign the last chance album, being in a hot seat because his records were expensive but had low sales. On the other hand Eddie Barclay, a patron of the Barclay label expressed doubts about the success of the album. But Léo Missir, artistic director at Barclay took Balavoine under his wing, defending the young singer and decides to keep him after Barclay demands him to return the contract to four of the five artist.

Recording
Thanks to the perseverance and determination of Missir, Balavoine returns to the studio located in the basement of a pavillion in Boulogne-Billancourt in April of 1978 to record his third album. Balavoine records the song that make up this new opus with the musicians in the cabin. He even confides to his relatives "au moins trente mille albums" (at least thirty thousand albums) he'll stop.

After many weeks of work, Missir goes to the studio to listen to the album but finds that a strong title is missing for the album to make its mark. Returning to work, Balavoine finds a melody of which he recorded the texte but could not find a convincing melody. One day, while he plays the song over and over again in the studio deming it unfinished, one of the musicians plays a small harmony on his keyboard, recorded by mistake. These notes inspire Balavoine to create a new introduction, that will give the title the and force and intensity it needed. While his musicians go one evening to a restaurant located next to the studio, Balavoine remains alone and begins to write for an hour, under an impulse, the lyrics of Le Chanteur, that writes in a lucid and astounding fashion the profession of a singer. After Fabien Lecœvre, author of Balavoine, le veritable histoire the young singer indirectly moks Eddie Barclay who thought that Balavoine was not pretty. As soon as the musicians returned from the restaurant. Balavoine called them back to read them the lyrics which were initially title J'voudrais bien réussir ma vie in reference to Je m'voyais deja by Charles Aznavour, finally after recording it in stride. The day the disk is to be burned, Balavoine calles Missir to tell him to change the name of this song, which he'd call Le Chanteur.

Publication and Reception
The album came out the first day of June 1978 under the label Riviera-LM, subsidiary of Barclay. Eddie Barclay invites Balavoine to express his doubts about his future and tells him that if he sells a hundred thousand records he'll "give him a blowjob". Barclay's sales team fabricated a promotional single featuring Le Chanteur on B side, the record company having bet on Si je suis fou in face A. But when the radios multi-broadcast Le Chanteur, the label is surprised that the track is broadcast ten times a day, forcing it to place it on the A side of the single for new pressings intended for sale. The single released in stores alongside the album meet with real commercial success, with more than 500,000 copies sold and fourth place on the charts January 1979. . The album Le Chanteur sold more than 800,00 copies. This success came when he appeared in the cast of the rock opera Starmania, whose original studio album released on September 11, 1978, sold more than 2 million copies.

The album was certified gold on December 22, 1978 for more than 100,000 copies sold.

Credits
Album designed by Daniel Balavoine, directed by Andy Scott, supervised by Léo Missir, arranged and performed by:


 * Daniel Balavoine — keyboards, acoustic guitars, vocals, backing vocals
 * Bernard Serré — basses and choirs
 * [[Patrick Dulphy et Colin Swinburne — guitars
 * Jean-Paul Batailley — drums and percussion
 * Roger Secco — drums and choirs
 * Hervé Limeretz — keyboard
 * Patrick Bourgoin — wind instruments
 * Guy Balavoine — choirs

Also See

 * Daniel Balavoine discography