Franck Pourcel
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Franck Pourcel (August 14, 1913 in Marseille - November 12, 2000) was a musician of the lounge or easy listening genre.
Born in Marseilles August 11, 1913
His father, a musician in the navy in Marseilles, started teaching him music when he was 6 years old. Pourcel studied violin at the Conservatoire in Marseilles, but also drums because he loved jazz. He led several jazz ensembles, including the French Fiddlers. Then he spend a year in Paris at the Conservatoire.
1931: he worked as a violinist at the Théâtre des Variétés in Marseilles
June 10, 1939: he married Odette.
At that period he became the musical director of some singers, among them Yves Montand and Lucienne Boyer, with whom he went on a world tour.
1946: he had a baby-girl named Françoise.
1952: he emigrated to the US, receiving a green card and the musician Union card, because he wanted to produce a big band orchestra.
1953, a french producer Maurice Tézé, called him back to France to record his first record Blue Tango and the follow up Limelight He got his first success with this record, and from then on, all french singers wanted to hire Franck "The American" to be their musical director.
1954: he recorded his first LP under the label Pathé-Marconi- with whom he would record 9 LPs in 3 years. and created the series Amour Danse et Violons which included 54 LPs
1956: he recorded his version of Only You, the success created by the Platters ; it sold over 3 millions copies in the US and went top 10 in the US charts. Between 1956 and 1972 he was the conductor for France at the Eurovision song contest.
1958: he started recording classical music ; with his serie Pages Célèbres he recorded popular classical pieces with 80 musicians, leading his « Varieties » public to the discovery and appreciation of classical music in the process.
His Pages Célèbres gave him the chance to direct famous classical orchestras like :
- The London Symphony orchestra
- The Society of Concerts for the Conservatoirte
- The BBC orchestra ar the Royal Festival Hall
- The Lamoureux Orchestra at the Salle Pleyel
1962: he composed together with Paul Mauriat and Raymond Lefèvre the famous hit « Chariot » created by Petula Clark and followed up by Little Peggy March as « I will follow Him ». In 1992 the song became the main theme of the motion picture Sister Act 1 & 2.
He recorded until 1995 with EMI
He achieved, among many others, the following distinctions:
- 1956: The Grand prix du disque Français
- 1957: The Grand prix du disque in Brazil
- 1963: The Golden disc in Venezuela
- 1965: Amsterdam: The Edison Price (The equivalent of the film Oscars) for his orchestrations of Pop music
- 1967: Back to the USA for an important promotion journey. He conducts in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Hollywood…
- 1968: Golden disc in Colombia for his popularity in this country-Disco Mundo
- 1969: Grand Prix du disque of the Charles Cros Academy in Paris
- 1970: Gold record in Japan, the first of a serie!
Distributed in over 50 countries, Franck broke all the selling records of the European orchestras, recorded over 2,000 songs and sold over 15 million albums worldwide.
He died on November 12, 2000 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, from Parkinson's disease.
