jeanette: todo es nuevo / tout est nouveau

spanish release

french release

album rating: ★★★★☆

Genre: Canción melódica / European pop / chanson. Todo Es Nuevo ('Everything Is New') / Tout Est Nouveau is the fourth studio album by Jeanette (born Janette Anne Dimech, Willesden, London, 1951), one of the most distinctive and beloved voices of 1970s Spanish pop music. Born in London to a father of Belgian-Congolese and Maltese descent and a Spanish mother from the Canary Islands, Jeanette grew up in Chicago and La Habra, California, and moved to Barcelona at age twelve following her parents' separation. She spoke only English on arrival in Spain, which gave her voice — soft, tender, almost whispering — an unusual quality that became her defining characteristic. Having risen to prominence as lead singer of the folk-pop group Pic-Nic ('Cállate, niña', 1968) and as a solo balladist with 'Soy rebelde' (1971), she achieved her greatest early success with 'Porque te vas' (written by José Luis Perales), which became a massive international hit after being used in Carlos Saura's 1976 film Cría Cuervos. Todo Es Nuevo was recorded in 1977 as a result of that international breakthrough, and was produced in collaboration with the celebrated French composer and arranger André Popp — known for his work with Marcel Amont and for the Eurovision composition 'L'amour est bleu' — reflecting Jeanette's active work in France and Germany in the post-'Porque te vas' period. The album was released on Ariola (Spain) and on the French market as Tout Est Nouveau (Ariola Eurodisc). It is sung primarily in French, with some tracks in Spanish and one in English.

Label: Ariola (Spain); Ariola Eurodisc (France/international), 1977.

Producer: André Popp.

Recording studio: Not individually specified in publicly available sources; recorded in France.

Critical reception: Todo Es Nuevo / Tout Est Nouveau was a solid critical and commercial success in the context of Jeanette's post-'Porque te vas' international phase. The combination of her distinctive breathy vocal style with André Popp's refined European pop arrangements gave the album a distinctive quality. Rate Your Music users give it a 3.32 average. In the 21st century, Jeanette has been reassessed as a cult figure and an influence on Spanish-language indie pop; in 2010, 20 minutos described her as 'a legend of Spanish music and muse of independent pop.'

Commercial success: The title single 'Todo Es Nuevo' / 'Tout Est Nouveau' was a moderate hit in Spain and France. The album contributed to Jeanette's established following in Francophone Europe. Her most commercially successful album would come later, with Corazón de poeta (1981), produced by Manuel Alejandro, which topped the Spanish chart and sold millions worldwide. Jeanette completed seven albums with great success and millions of sales worldwide over her career.

text generated by artificial intelligence — claude, sonnet 4.6 — free version, liable to contain errors

precious little

chanson pour anna

andré popp et son orchestre

album rating: ★★★★☆

a) Genre

Easy listening / Orchestral pop / Lounge. André Popp et son Orchestre (1975) is an album of instrumental orchestral pop cover versions in the easy-listening tradition that Popp had practised throughout his career. The repertoire is drawn entirely from international pop hits of the mid-1970s. All material is arranged and conducted by Popp for his orchestra, transforming popular and film hits into smooth, accessible orchestral treatments characteristic of the easy-listening format.

b) Release

Original French release: RCA Records France (1975; LP catalogue FPL1-0113; also identified in some sources as PL 10113), vinyl LP. The French first edition carries the RCA label. A Spanish pressing was issued on Fonogram, S.A. (the Spanish Philips/PolyGram subsidiary), making the album available in the Iberian market. An Italian promotional edition (LP, Album, Promo) was also released, listed on Discogs under catalogue number r5262908 (1976 Italian promo), and a further Italian pressing with catalogue r2700037 is documented as a 1976 edition. The Discogs master page (master/753276) consolidates all known editions. A digital reissue of the track 'Sweet Mary' from this album was released in 2024 by Transversales Disques, making that individual track digitally available. No comprehensive CD reissue of the full album has been documented. 

c) Production

André Popp served as composer, arranger, and conductor of his own orchestra throughout the album -- consistent with his working practice across his entire career as a recording artist under his own name. No separate producer credit is documented. The album was produced within RCA France's production infrastructure for the French domestic market. Popp's orchestral arrangements are characteristic of his mid-1970s style: lush string sections with funk-inflected brass on the disco-influenced tracks ('The Hustle', 'Hot Shot'), lighter chamber textures on the ballads ('Feelings', 'Sound of Love'), and a more harmonically ambitious approach on 'Aria' and 'L'Atlantique'. 

d) Recording

Recording took place in France in 1975, consistent with RCA France's production base in Paris. The album is an original studio recording of new orchestral arrangements, not a compilation of previously released material.

e) Reception

No specific contemporary critical reviews, chart positions, or sales certifications for this album have been documented in available sources. The album belongs to the highly productive but largely undocumented sub-genre of European easy-listening orchestral pop covers albums of the mid-1970s, which were produced in large quantities for the adult domestic market but rarely attracted specialist critical attention. The track 'Je ne suis que de l'amour' -- Popp's arrangement of Pierre Bachelet's theme from the 1975 French erotic film Histoire d'O -- is notable for its extended duration (3:47) and represents the album's most tonally ambitious track. The 2024 digital reissue of 'Sweet Mary' on Transversales Disques suggests a residual collector and curator interest in the album's content, particularly in the context of the broader revival of interest in 1970s European easy-listening and library music. 

André Popp

André Charles Jean Popp (born 19 February 1924, Fontenay-le-Comte, Vendée, France — died 10 May 2014, France) was a French composer, arranger, conductor, and screenwriter of German-Dutch background. He trained as a church organist from childhood, taking over his father's post in 1939 when his father was conscripted into the army at the outbreak of World War II. He studied at the Saint-Joseph Institute and after the war moved to Paris, where he began his professional career. In the early 1950s he was hired by the Philips label and worked for the French national broadcaster RTF, composing and directing music for its Club d'Essai programme. His 1954 instrumental composition 'Les Lavandières du Portugal' (Portuguese Washerwomen) became a major international hit recorded by Luis Mariano and many others. His Piccolo, Saxo et Compagnie (1956, text by Jean Broussolle) -- a musical tale for children intended as an introduction to orchestral instruments -- became a beloved classic of French children's culture and has been performed and recorded worldwide; its English-language version, narrated by Victor Borge, was issued by Columbia Records in the US. His 1957 collaboration with Pierre Fatosme, Elsa Popping et sa Musique Sidérante (released in the United States as Delirium in Hi-Fi on Columbia), made him a key figure in the 'space age pop' movement. He co-wrote the Eurovision Song Contest winner 'Tom Pillibi' (sung by Jacqueline Boyer, Paris 1960) and 'L'Amour est Bleu' (sung by Vicky Leandros for Luxembourg, Eurovision 1967), whose instrumental cover version by Paul Mauriat spent five weeks at number one in the United States in early 1968. His melody for 'Manchester et Liverpool' (sung by Marie Leforêt) was used by Soviet state television as the background music to the Vremya weather forecast from the early 1970s. He worked extensively with Juliette Gréco, Marie Leforêt, France Gall, Brigitte Bardot, Françoise Hardy, Nana Mouskouri, and Jane Birkin, among many others. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s he recorded a series of instrumental albums under his own name and the 'André Popp et son Orchestre' banner. He received the Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros for his work in French popular music.

This text was generated by Claude (Anthropic). It may contain errors or inaccuracies.

sweet mary

je ne suis que de l'amour (thème d'histoire d'o)

bon entendeur: aller-retour

various artists remix compilation

love is blue [andré popp]

love on concorde [andré popp/alice et moi]