Fabulous scopitones
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Slightly bulkier than a video phone, the Scopitone was a "Film Jukebox" invented in France (from surplus WWII airplane parts!) in the early 1960's and also the films (the ancestors of video clips) that were played on it. The first Scopitone videos were made in France around 1960, and the craze spread throughout Europe (especially in West Germany and England) before landing in the United States in mid-1964. By the end of the 1960s, they were gone.
Just for those who are not French. This singer is Claude François, aka Cloclo, a star of the Scopitones. I had to listen to his songs during all my childhood as my mum was a fan and taught me how to dance like him and his "Clodette." Looks uninteresting, but you should see how the crowd gathers around me when I dance on "Alexandrie Alexandra", "Magnolia Forever" or ""Belle, belle, belle" at wedding parties.
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i was in france last year for the anniversary of claude francois' death... seems he (accidentally?) electrocuted himself to death by pulling a lamp into the bathtub, something like 20 years ago.
i love '60s/'70s french pop music, but this guy was outrageously bad. because of the anniversary, the TV was full of retrospectives of his career that day. his schtick was that he would take the most popular US hits and translate the words or write new lyrics in french. the results were just awful. some of the worst videos i ever saw. i remember his version of 'my girl' as especially heinous.