Ronnie Bird

Ronnie Bird
Ronnie Bird at Rock'n'roll jubilee, Paris 2010
Ronnie Bird at Rock'n'roll jubilee, Paris 2010
Background information
Born
Ronald Méhu

(1946-04-24) 24 April 1946 (age 80)
Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France
GenreRock
OccupationsSinger, songwriter
Years activesince 1964
LabelsDecca
Philips, Phonogram, Mercury

Ronnie Bird (born Ronald Méhu; 24 April 1946 in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine) is a French singer.

Career

As a student, Bird attended Lycée Claude-Bernard in Paris until he had an argument with a teacher.[citation needed]

As a young singer, he preferred to perform in English in a desire for authenticity. He debuted his recording career in 1964 with Decca, with the title track Adieu à un ami, which was a homage to Buddy Holly; this song later appeared in the film US Go Home (1994). According to author Jonathyne Briggs, Bird and other French pop stars of that era, such as Jacques Dutronc, Hugues Aufray, Antoine, and Serge Gainsbourg "created a more diverse pop music landscape". Richie Unterberger later wrote, "During the mid-'60s, Ronnie Bird was the only French artist to successfully emulate the sounds of the British Invasion across the channel".

He was voted the eighth most popular male singer in France in a 1965 poll by Salut Les Copains. He hosted a Radio Luxembourg 208 broadcast on 1 April 1966.

He regularly appeared with popular singers visiting France, including Chuck Berry and Tom Jones.

He recorded the Rolling Stones' "The Last Time" and "Down Home Girl" in French. He recorded songs by Mickey Jones and Tommy Brown in English for Philips. He recorded two songs, "Rain on the City" and "Sad Soul" for the U.S. market before his U.S. tour.

Bird appeared with many other artists in the "photo du siècle" or "photo of the century" taken by Jean-Marie Périer. The photograph published in the magazine Salut les copains in 1966.

Despite his evident ability and the apparent success of songs like Elle m'attend, Où va-t-elle ?, Bird ended his artistic career after 5 years.

He is also noted for participating in the French production of the musical Hair between 1968 and 1972 . Moreover, he wrote the lyrics of the song, Precious Things, sung by Dee Dee Bridgewater, in a duet with Ray Charles, which saw success in 1989.[citation needed]

The song Le Pivert (the woodpecker) was prohibited from being played on Radio-France because of, according to an internal memo, its "vulgar attack on good taste". The memo was published in Charlie Hebdo.[citation needed]

Discography

Super 45 tours, singles, CD singles

Original studio albums

Collaborations

Live albums

Compilations albums

As writer

Miscellaneous

Further reading

See also

References

  1. ↑ Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 11 September 1965.
  2. ↑ BMI: The Many Worlds of Music. Broadcast Music, Incorporated. 1965.
  3. ↑ Dister, Alain (1993). The Age of Rock. Abrams. ISBN 978-0-8109-2831-2.
  4. ↑ Conway, M.; Patel, K. (29 October 2010). Europeanization in the Twentieth Century: Historical Approaches. Springer. ISBN 978-0-230-29312-0.
  5. ↑ "Music Capitals of the World" (PDF). Billboard. 20 November 1965. p. 29.
  6. ↑ Mayne, Judith (30 March 2005). Claire Denis. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-09639-6.
  7. ↑ Briggs, Jonathyne (2 March 2015). Sounds French: Globalization, Cultural Communities and Pop Music, 1958-1980. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-026664-6.
  8. ↑ Unterberger, Richie. "Ronnie Bird | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  9. ↑ Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 11 September 1965.
  10. ↑ Neill, Andrew; Kent, Matthew (2009). Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere: The Complete Chronicle of the WHO 1958-1978. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. ISBN 978-1-4027-6691-6.
  11. ↑ "International News Reports" (PDF). Billboard. 26 February 1966. p. 45.
  12. ↑ "From the Music Capitals of the World" (PDF). Billboard. 30 July 1966. p. 48.
  13. ↑ "Musical Capitals of the World" (PDF). Billboard. 29 May 1965. p. 26.
  14. ↑ "From the Music Capitals of the World". Billboard. 11 May 1968. p. 50.
  15. ↑ Brillie, Michel (2 November 1968). "Paris Promenade". Record World. p. 43.
  16. ↑ "Les années yé-yé en photos". leparisien.fr (in French). 13 January 2011. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  17. ↑ Legrand, Emmanuel (21 November 1992). "Global Music Pulse" (PDF). Billboard. p. 51.