BMG has signed a long-term worldwide administration/sub-publishing agreement with Editions Alpha, which covers a bundle of well-known French songs of the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties.
Editions Alpha was founded in the early 1960s by Jacques Wolfsohn, a prominent figure from the early days of the French music business.
Wolfsohn was instrumental in launching the careers of Françoise Hardy and Jacques Dutronc, and was close to Johnny Hallyday and the other artists who emerged from the seminal “French Yé Yé” wave of the swinging 1960s.
Highlights in the Alpha catalog include all the Françoise Hardy hits from the 60s, including ‘Tous Les Garçons Et Les Filles’, ‘Mon Amie La Rose’, ‘Le Temps De L’amour’, all the Jacques Dutronc hits from the 1960s and 1970s, including ‘Les Playboys’, ‘Les Cactus’, ‘La Fille Du Père Noël’, ‘Il Est Cinq Heures Paris S’éveille’, ‘L’hotesse De L’air’, ‘Et Moi Et Moi Et Moi’, ‘J’aime Les Filles’, as well as hits by Johnny Hallyday (pictured) like ‘Laisse Les Filles’ and novelty French cha-cha hit ‘Viens A Juan Les Pins’ by Bob Azam.
The company remained active in the 1970s and the 1980s, signing early hits by Martin Circus (‘Je Danse Comme Un Pingouin’), Téléphone (‘Hygiaphone’) and landmark French punk and new wave hits like Taxi’ Girl’s ‘Cherchez Le Garçon’ and Lio/Elli & Jacno’s ‘Amoureux Solitaires’.
The catalog also includes pre-World War II songs, notably Marguerite Monot’s ‘La Goualante Du Pauvre Jean’ and Vincent Scotto’s ‘Sous Les Ponts De Paris’, made famous in English by the likes of Dean Martin or Eartha Kitt (‘Under The Bridges Of Paris’).
Now run by Wolfsohn’s son, Jan Sodderland, BMG said that the catalogue is currently benefitting from renewed interest in Sixties French music, both in France and in other countries, as exemplified by many sync uses in films, commercials, TV series, as well as compilation reissues and new cover versions.Music Business Worldwide
