The exotic, mysterious Dalida

Born Yolanda Christina Guglietti in 1933, in Cairo of Italian parents, she was Miss Egypt of 1954. She moved to Paris to become a movie actress, taking her new stage name from Hedy Lamarr’s character in the film "Samson and Delilah." She became an acceptable cabaret singer. A few club dates led to the offer of a record deal. Her second single, "Bambino," ruled the French music charts in 1956, and a chanteuse was born. That meant covers, and among her early successes was La jour où la pluie viendra, an American hit for Jane Morgan as "The Day The Rain Came Down."

Dalida recorded English songs in French, German songs in Italian and Spanish, and added Arabic to her arsenal of languages. Her records have sold over 80 million copies worldwide, earning 55 gold records over a career that spanned classic oldies, folk, disco, new wave, and the beginnings of techno. In the French covers era, she contributed Gardez-moi le dernier danse ("Save The Last Dance For Me"), Où sont devenues les fleurs

("Where Have All The Flowers Gone"), Bang Bang (the 1966 Cher hit) and Le petit Gonzalez (knowing the French fascination with certain styles of American pop, there had to be a version of "Speedy Gonzalez" out there somewhere).

Her album covers picture her as a dark-haired Italian beauty or a blonde française, depending on the decade. Over the years, she adapted the personas of a bright-eyed ingenue, a temptress, a saint, and a disco queen. Dalida’s personal life was one of divorces, affairs, breakups, and the occasional suicide attempt. On May 3, 1987, she succeeded. Her note read: "Life has become unbearable. Please forgive me."

Her massive gray granite tombstone and life-sized statue are tourist attractions in Paris’ Cimitiére Montmartre. Nearby, the junction of two streets in her adopted home neighborhood has been designated by the city as Place Dalida. She’s on a French stamp in the same 2001 pop stars set as Claude François.

Now, travel with Monsieur Tom way down another back road to a secluded corner of this already little-known sub-genre of pop, to meet Les Surfs.