French music producer (1921?2005)
Eddie Barclay
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Born
| Edouard Ruault
(
1921-01-26
)
26 January 1921
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Died
| 13 May 2005
(2005-05-13)
(aged 84)
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Occupation
| Record producer
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Edouard Ruault
(
French pronunciation:
[edwa?
??o]
; 26 January 1921 – 13 May 2005), better known as
Eddie Barclay
, was a French
record producer
whose singers included
Jacques Brel
,
Dalida
and
Charles Aznavour
. He founded record label
Barclay
.
Life
[
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]
Ruault, the son of a cafe waiter and a post office worker, was born in
Paris
on January 26, 1921.
[1]
He spent much of his early childhood with his grandmother in
Taverny
(in today's
Val-d'Oise
). His parents bought the Cafe de la Poste bar in the middle of Paris while he was a child and at the age of 15 he left school to work in the cafe. He had not enjoyed his studies but he taught himself music and piano. He particularly liked American
jazz
and embraced the music of
Fats Waller
. He often visited the
Hot Club de France
to hear the quintet of
Stephane Grappelli
and
Django Reinhardt
.
He became a pianist at "L'Etape" club in rue Godot-de-Mauroy, Paris, where his half-hour sets alternated with the young
Louis de Funes
, also at the start of his career. When the German occupiers of France banned jazz, he held regular social gatherings with other
zazous
at his home to listen to jazz records and illegal radio stations. Pierre-Louis Guerin employed him as a pianist at Guerin's first nightclub, "Le Club".
[1]
After the war, Eduard Ruault changed his name to Eddie Barclay and opened "Eddie's Club" in Paris. In 1947 he started a band which featured his wife, Nicole, on vocals under the name Eve Williams. Barclay and his wife started "Blue Star Records", using their apartment to store 78 rpm discs, with Barclay delivering them himself. Musicians on the label included
Don Byas
and
Eddie Constantine
. Barclay wrote songs with
Charles Aznavour
and
Boris Vian
, and with Vian he edited
Jazz
magazine.
[2]
In 1952 Alan Morrison, a visitor to Barclay's club, had invited him to visit the US to see the new recording technology that enabled the production of 45s and LPs. In 1955 Barclay agreed to manufacture and distribute
Mercury Records
in Europe. He took 60 masters to Pathe-Marconi's Paris factory and began promoting the new microgroove format to the French market. As well as releasing US records by the likes of
Ray Charles
, Dizzy Gillespie,
Sammy Davis, Jr.
and
Duke Ellington
, Barclay engaged Gerhard Lehner, a German sound engineer, to make original recordings in Avenue Hoche, Paris. After selling 1.5 million copies of
the Platters
' "Only You", Barclay Records rose to become the top music production company in France. His success led to his nickname as "empereur du microsillon" (king of microgroove).
His francophone discoveries included the singers
Hugues Aufray
,
Michel Delpech
,
Dalida
(whom he launched in 1956),
Mireille Mathieu
,
Claude Nougaro
, and
Eddy Mitchell
. His artistes delighted in the artistic freedom that he afforded them, and in the trust that he placed in their judgement.
Aznavour joined the Barclay stable in 1956 even though they had been friends for over a decade by that time. They collaborated on some songwriting including
Quand tu m'embrasses
(When You Hold Me).
Jacques Brel
, the
Belgian
poet-singer who stayed with Barclay until his death in 1978, began his long association with Barclay in 1962, recording hits including "Le plat Pays" (The Flat Country), and "Les Bigotes" (The Holier-than-Thous) on the Barclay label. Brel left
Philips Records
to join Barclay as did
Juliette Greco
. Philips threatened to litigate but the matter was settled out of court and Barclay released
Johnny Hallyday
to Philips as part of the settlement. Anarchist poet
Leo Ferre
was another established singer-songwriter who joined Barclay Records to great mutual benefit.
Barclay's nose for success was not infallible, however. He refused to sign
Bob Marley
, ended his collaboration with
Pierre Perret
and dropped
Michel Sardou
, four years after discovering him, by telling him "My little old fellow, write songs if you want, but especially do not sing them. You do not have any talent!"
At the beginning of the eighties, recovering from cancer of the throat, which had been diagnosed in 1979, he sold 80% of his label to
PolyGram
,
[1]
and retired to
Saint-Tropez
, where he had spent 25 years building a house called Maison du Cap, Ramatuelle, since
Brigitte Bardot
persuaded him to buy land there in the late 1950s. His trademark was a white suit, and his Saint-Tropez parties at which all the guests wore white became huge events for the French media. He emerged briefly from retirement with a new record label but it was not the success he wished. The house was bought by
Amanda Eliasch
and
Johan Eliasch
and is now owned by Johan Eliasch alone.
[3]
In March 1994 Barclay underwent quadruple bypass surgery after a heart attack. On April 29, 2005 he was admitted to the
Ambroise-Pare hospital
in Paris with urinary and pulmonary infections. He died there during the night of May 12, 2005 and was pronounced dead in the morning. He has one son, Guillaume, from his third marriage to Marie-Christine Steinberg.
Works
[
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]
Barclay transcribed and interpreted early jazz numbers. He co-wrote the songs
Quand tu m'embrasses
with Charles Aznavour, and
Le rock de Monsieur Failair
with Boris Vian.
He wrote the original soundtracks for several films, including
Bob le flambeur
(1955, English title:
Bob the Gambler
; one translation is "Bob the high roller") directed by
Jean-Pierre Melville
.
In 1988 he published his autobiography.
Wives
[
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]
Barclay was notorious for his many wives to the extent that some journalists referred to him as '
Bluebeard
'. At one of his later weddings, the officiating mayor of
Neuilly
said: "Ah, good day, Monsieur Barclay, what a pleasure to see you yet again." His nine wives were:
- Michele (2 years) married in 1945
- Nicole (14 years), jazz singer under the name of Eve Williams
- Marie-Christine (4 years)
- Beatrice (1.5 years) - she subsequently married
Guy Marchand
- Michele (briefly)
- Danielle Mauroy (1 year)
- Cathy (3 years)
- Caroline (11 years) married in 1988
- Tiara, married in June 2002 on the island of
Moorea
.
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
Other sources
[
edit
]
- Associated Press release 12:34 May 14, 2005.
- Sleeve notes,
Charles Aznavour: Je M'Voyais Deja
CD (EMI, 1995).
- Barclay, Eddie.
Que la Fete Continue
(Paris: Robert Laffont, 1988)
- O'Connor, Patrick. '
Obituary: Eddie Barclay
',
The Guardian
, May 16, 2005
External links
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International
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Artists
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Other
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