Claude François’ mother was very musical and had her son take piano and violin lessons. On his own, the boy learned to play the drums. As a result of the 1956 Suez Crisis, the family returned to live in Monaco, where they struggled financially after Claude’s father fell ill and could not work. A young Claude found a job as a bank clerk and at night earned extra money playing drums with an orchestra at the luxury hotels along the French Riviera. With a good but untested singing voice, he was offered a chance to sing at a hotel in the fashionable Mediterranean resort town of Juan-les-Pins. His show was well received and eventually he began to perform at the glamorous night-clubs along the Côte d’Azur. While working the clubs, he met Janet Woolcoot, an English dancer whom he married in 1960.
Ambitious, Claude François moved to Paris, where there were many more opportunities to pursue his career. At the time, American Rock and Roll was taking hold in France and he took a job as part of a singing group in order to make a living. With the goal of eventually making it as a solo act, he paid the cost to record a 45rpm. Trying to capitalize on the American dance craze « The Twist », Claude François recorded a song titled « Nabout Twist » that proved a resounding failure. Undaunted, in 1962 he recorded a cover version in French of an Everly Brothers song, « Made to Love » (aka Girls Girls Girls). Written by Phil Everly, it had been only a minor hit in America, but Claude François’ rendition titled « Belles Belles Belles » rocked to the top of the French charts, selling close to two million copies and making him an overnight star.
Under a new manager, Claude François’ career continued to blossom. In 1963 he followed the first success with another French adaptation of an American song. This time, doing Trini Lopez’s « If I Had a Hammer » in French as « Si j’avais un marteau ». Claude François met Michel Bourdais who was working for the well-known French magazine “Salut les Copains” in English as « Hi Buddies ». He liked the rigor and the precision of Michel’s drawings and asked him to draw his portrait. This drawing has remained very famous until now. Capitalizing on his blond good looks, he mimicked Elvis Presley’s stage style as well as the slicked-back hair. Performing in sequined suits, François gave high-energy stage performances that had hordes of adoring teenage fans racing to the music shops to purchase his latest record or lining up to buy a ticket for his shows.
In 1964 he headlined at the Paris Olympia, a sign that he had arrived. At the end of that year Claude François created original new dance steps and Michel Bourdais drew them. For the first time, they brought up the idea of setting-up a show with female dancers. In January 1965, while returning from a trip to Las Vegas, Claude Francois fascinated by the American shows decided to take them as a model and eventually the project of performing on the stage with a female dancer band became clear in his mind.
A dedicated professional, Claude François worked hard to achieve success producing a string of massively popular hit songs and touring constantly. With the onslaught of Beatlemania, he covered their hits in French, adjusted the hair style a little and kept his success moving ahead. But his talent extended beyond copying the works others had made famous, and he wrote songs for himself and displayed a melodic voice doing romantic ballads.
In 1966, François created a complete new stage act using four female dancers as backup. Named « Les Clodettes, » the sexy girls danced in the background while François did his own energetic work center stage. In a return to the Paris Olympia he added eight musicians and a full orchestra to his backup dancers, putting on a spectacular show that filled every seat in the large theater and left fans standing in the street for lack of tickets.
Divorced from his wife, in 1967 he began a relationship with France Gall, another famous French singer. Their affair was short lived and he soon met Isabelle Forêt, with whom he had two sons in two years. Flushed with enormous success and confidence, he established his own record company. In 1968, he and Jacques Revaux wrote a song in French called Comme d’habitude, which became a hit in francophone countries. The song was inspired by his recent break-up with France Gall. Canadian singing star Paul Anka reworked it for the English-speaking public into the now legendary hit most famously sung by Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra as « My Way ». Although Claude François continued his successful formula of adapting English and American rock and roll hits for the French market, by the 1970s the market had changed and the disco craze that swept North America took root in France. For the versatile François, this was not a problem. He simply re-invented himself as the king of French disco, recording « La plus belle des choses, » a French version of a Bee Gees hit record.
He worked non-stop, touring across Europe, Africa and at major venues in Quebec in Canada. However, his workload caught up with him in 1971 when he collapsed on stage from exhaustion. After a brief period off, he returned to the recording studios, releasing several best-selling hits throughout the early 1970s. He expanded from owning his own record company to acquiring a celebrity magazine and a modeling agency. Although driven to achieve financial success, in 1974 he organized a concert to raise funds for a charity for handicapped children and the following year he participated in a Paris concert to raise funds for medical research. By the mid-1970s he was single again, dating several well-known European stars. He continued to perform while overseeing his numerous business interests. In 1975, while in London, he narrowly escaped death when an IRA bomb exploded and two years later a fan tried to shoot him. In 1977 and 1978, more than 15 years after his first hit record, he was still topping the musical charts with multi-million sales from hits such as « Alexandrie Alexandra » and performing to large audiences.
After working in Switzerland, on Saturday, March 11, 1978 he returned to his Paris apartment in order to appear the next day on « Rendez-vous du Dimanche » with TV host Michel Drucker. His demise was caused by his obsession with cleanliness and order. He was accidentally electrocuted when he tried to fix a broken light bulb while standing in a filled bathtub. At only 39 years of age, his early death brought a wave of public sympathy for a national French star.
Claude François owned a home near the village of Dannemois in the Essonne departement about 35 miles south of Paris. It was a place where he liked to escape to relax in the quiet countryside and it was there that he was interred in the local cemetery.
On March 11, 2000, on the 22nd anniversary of his death, Place Claude-François in Paris was named in his memory, right in front of the building where he died.
In 2004 the movie 'Podium' was released. It's a story about a Claude François impersonator (played by Benoît Poelvoorde).
His hits include Alexandrie, Alexandra; Cette Année-la; Je vais à Rio.
Le lundi au soleil
Claude François Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Il est déjà huit heures
Embrassons-nous tendrement
Un taxi t'emporte
Tu t'en vas, mon cœur
Parmi ces milliers de gens
C'est une journée idéale
Pour marcher dans la forêt
D'aller se coucher
Seuls dans les genêts
Le lundi au soleil
C'est une chose qu'on n'aura jamais
Chaque fois c'est pareil
C'est quand on est derrière les carreaux
Quand on travaille que le ciel est beau
Qu'il doit faire beau sur les routes
Le lundi au soleil
Le lundi au soleil
On pourrait le passer à s'aimer
Le lundi au soleil
On serait mieux dans l'odeur des foins
On aimerait mieux cueillir le raisin
Ou simplement ne rien faire
Le lundi au soleil
Toi, tu es à l'autre bout
De cette ville
Là-bas, comme chaque jour
Les dernières heures
Sont les plus difficiles
J'ai besoin de ton amour
Et puis dans la foule au loin
Je te vois, tu me souris
Les néons des magasins
Sont tous allumés
C'est déjà la nuit
Le lundi au soleil
C'est une chose qu'on n'aura jamais
Chaque fois c'est pareil
C'est quand on est derrière les carreaux
Quand on travaille que le ciel est beau
Qu'il doit faire beau sur les routes
Le lundi au soleil
Le lundi au soleil
On pourrait le passer à s'aimer
Le lundi au soleil
On serait mieux dans l'odeur des foins
On aimerait mieux cueillir le raisin
Ou simplement ne rien faire
Le lundi au soleil
Le lundi au soleil
C'est une chose qu'on n'aura jamais
Chaque fois c'est pareil
C'est quand on est derrière les carreaux
Quand on travaille que le ciel est beau
Qu'il doit faire beau sur les routes
Le lundi au soleil, hey
Le lundi au soleil
The opening verse of the song “Le Lundi au Soleil” by Claude François talks about the frustration of having to part ways with a lover in the morning. The singer extolls the beauty of a perfect day, where walking in the forest would be more normal than going to bed alone in the heather with thousands of other people milling around. The ideal day, however, is something they will never have because they are not free to spend it with the one they love. The chorus emphasizes this point, where every week is the same - on Monday, when people work, the weather is always beautiful, and one can see this through the windows. They could spend the day loving each other, but instead they are stuck behind desks.
The second verse of the song paints a picture of a city, where the couple is separated by distance. The singer talks about the difficult last hours of the day, as they need the love of their partner to get through it. The verse ends with the image of the neon lights from stores and the encroaching night signaling the end of the day. Through this song, Claude François is lamenting the dreariness of working life, where good weather is only visible through windows, and the time for love is hardly available. He questions why Monday, the start of the week, is always perfect. Why is it when they’re stuck behind windows, the world around them seems better outside?
Line by Line Meaning
Regarde ta montre
Check your watch
Il est déjà huit heures
It's already eight o'clock
Embrassons-nous tendrement
Let's kiss tenderly
Un taxi t'emporte
A taxi takes you away
Tu t'en vas, mon cœur
You leave, my heart
Parmi ces milliers de gens
Among these thousands of people
C'est une journée idéale
It's an ideal day
Pour marcher dans la forêt
To walk in the forest
On trouverait plus normal
We would find it more normal
D'aller se coucher
To go to bed
Seuls dans les genêts
Alone in the broom shrubs
Le lundi au soleil
Monday in the sun
C'est une chose qu'on n'aura jamais
It's something we'll never have
Chaque fois c'est pareil
Each time it's the same
C'est quand on est derrière les carreaux
It's when we're behind windows
Quand on travaille que le ciel est beau
When we're working, that's when the sky is beautiful
Qu'il doit faire beau sur les routes
That it must be beautiful on the roads
Le lundi au soleil
Monday in the sun
On pourrait le passer à s'aimer
We could spend it loving each other
On serait mieux dans l'odeur des foins
We would be better in the smell of hay
On aimerait mieux cueillir le raisin
We would prefer to pick grapes
Ou simplement ne rien faire
Or simply do nothing
Toi, tu es à l'autre bout
You, you're at the other end
De cette ville
Of this city
Là-bas, comme chaque jour
There, like every day
Les dernières heures
The last hours
Sont les plus difficiles
Are the most difficult
J'ai besoin de ton amour
I need your love
Et puis dans la foule au loin
And then in the crowd in the distance
Je te vois, tu me souris
I see you, you smile at me
Les néons des magasins
The neon lights of the shops
Sont tous allumés
Are all lit up
C'est déjà la nuit
It's already night
Le lundi au soleil, hey
Monday in the sun, hey
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Patrick Pierre Juvet, Jean-Claude Petit, Jean-Michel Franck Rivat, Frank Thomas
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@loveandrock60130
Regarde ta montre, il est déjà huit heures
Embrassons-nous tendrement
Un taxi t'emporte, tu t'en vas mon coeur
Parmi ces milliers de gens
C'est une journée idéale
Pour marcher dans la forêt
On trouverait plus normal
D'aller se coucher seuls dans les genêts
Le lundi au soleil
C'est une chose qu'on n'aura jamais
Chaque fois c'est pareil
C'est quand on est derrière les carreaux
Quand on travaille que le ciel est beau
Qu'il doit faire beau sur les routes
Le lundi au soleil
Le lundi au soleil
On pourrait le passer à s'aimer
Le lundi au soleil
On serait mieux dans l'odeur des foins
On aimerait mieux cueillir le raisin
Ou simplement ne rien faire
Le lundi au soleil
Toi, tu es à l'autre bout de cette ville
Là-bas, comme chaque jour
Les dernières heures sont les plus difficiles
J'ai besoin de ton amour
Et puis dans la foule au loin
Je te vois, tu me souris
Les néons des magasins sont tous allumés
C'est déjà la nuit
Le lundi au soleil
C'est une chose qu'on n'aura jamais
Chaque fois c'est pareil
C'est quand on est derrière les carreaux
Quand on travaille que le ciel est beau
Qu'il doit faire beau sur les routes
Le lundi au soleil
Le lundi au soleil
On pourrait le passer à s'aimer
Le lundi au soleil
On serait mieux dans l'odeur des foins
On aimerait mieux cueillir le raisin
Ou simplement ne rien faire
Le lundi au soleil
Le lundi au soleil
C'est une chose qu'on n'aura jamais
Chaque fois c'est pareil
C'est quand on est derrière les carreaux
Quand on travaille que le ciel est beau
Qu'il doit faire beau sur les routes
Le lundi au soleil
@jeanne1939
Le lundi au Soleil, je peux l'écouter 50 fois de suite, je m'en lasse jamais !
@nolanmartin5724
Moi aussi.
@juliendecure4482
Moi aussi c'était tellement des chansons magnifiques
@edfre2494
Normal 😁
@Fab-ienne
Quel bonheur pour moi d'écouter ses chansons tous les jours ! Cloclo mon idole pour toujours 💗
@laurenthenni1004
Ew
@fatimazerguit7524
C'est une chanson agréable à écouter ça donne de la bonne humeur pour commencer la semaine.
@zehairaklaya3500
Très belle chanson et c'est toujours agréable à l écouter. Bon souvenir de mon adolescence et mes années de collège
@fatimadinar59
Moi j'écoute cette chanson ça me met du baume au coeur❤
@kateguyomard
Merci à Claude François pour son interprétation et merci à Patrick Juvet pour la composition de cette chanson ...