Les Surfs were six siblings, four brothers and two sisters, from Madagascar, a former French possession off the southeast coast of Africa. They covered the English hit parade in French, Italian, and Spanish. Reviens vite et oublier. Tu seras mi baby. "Be My Baby." Same thing. (Phil Spector’s Wall Of Sound goes international.) Les Surfs added "There’s A Place" (Adieu chagrin) to the Beatles A-Z in French list, and covered the mother of all sing-along oldies, "The Shoop-Shoop Song," translating its original title "It’s In His Kiss" as Va te l’embrasser while leaving in each and every shoop-shoop.
The cover era winds down
The sixties and seventies were the prime years for French covers. By 1980 the music scene in both France and Quebec had grown, and renewed interest in preserving the French language and culture provided a more favorable environment for Francophone artists who wrote their own songs.
Song search results tell me that L’amour est comme une cigarette, Sylvie Vartan’s take on Sheena Easton’s 1982 "Morning Train," was the last French cover of an English song to become a significant chart hit.
Covers live, though, in cabaret performances and on concert CDs, and via the occasional left-field item such as The Beautiful South’s recording of "Dream A Little Dream Of Me" that became Les yeux ouverts ("Eyes Open") in the film "French Kiss."
Old stuff can also sound new again, and everything’s being re-issued on CD. In 2004, Montreal’s Expérience label released "Londres PQ," a compilation of Quebecois covers of British Invasion hits. Expérience followed it in 2005 with "Beatles 101," same concept, Fabs only. Both perfect for bilingual sing along time. (Monsieur Tom turns volume up.) "I don’t care what they say, I won’t stay dans un monde sans amour . . . "