Friday's French music break - Les Prêtres, "Écris l'histoire"

Often a cover version of a song is a simple repetition of what went before; pleasant enough in its own way but not really offering anything more than the original.

Sometimes - as in the case of Coeur de Pirate's recent remake of Renaud's  "Mistral gagnant" - there's a little extra - either in the voice, the interpretation or arrangement.

And then there are the covers that fall so far short of what came first, it's almost an embarrassment to listen to, let alone write about, them.

Such is the case with this week's Friday's French music break - Les Prêtres with "Écris l'histoire".

Originally, the song was recorded in 2005 by the late Grégory Lemarchal, whose career was cut short just two years later when, at 23, he died of complications from the genetic condition  cystic fibrosis.



Love him or loathe him, there's no denying that Lemarchal, who won the fourth edition of the now defunct TV talent show Star Academy, had an exceptional voice, managing to reach those notes that defy many a singer as you can hear, for example, on the B-side of the single.

It's a cover version of "SOS d'un terrien en détresse" written by  Michel Berger and Luc Plamondon for the 1978 musical "Starmania" and originally interpreted by Daniel Balavoine.

Grégory Lemarchal (screenshot from 2006 single "Même si" - What you're made of - duet with Lucie Silvas)

Enough "scene setting".

Back to Les Prêtres.

As the name of the group suggests, this "boy's band with a difference", if you will, is the French equivalent of the similarly-named Irish group The Priests.

In 2010, the Bishop of Gap, Jean-Michel di Falco, was having a brainstorming session with close friend and singer-songwriter  Didier Barbelivien, as to how to raise funds for a school in  Madagascar and the construction of a church in his diocese.

Inspired by the success of The Priests, the Bishop went about recruiting three likely candidates - Jean-Michel Bardet, Charles Troesch and Joseph Dinh Nguyen Nguyen - allowing Barbelivien to handle negotiations with TF1 musique

Les Prêtres, left to right, Jean-Michel Bardet, Charles Troesch and Joseph Dinh Nguyen Nguyen (collage of screenshots from official video "Ecris l'histoire")

The first album "Spiritus Dei" complete with cover versions of French standards, was a runaway success, topping the charts for nine weeks and in the process becoming the biggest-selling album of 2010 in France.

TV appearances and concerts followed, as did a second album "Gloria" in 2011 - the trio once again putting their own "special" vocal touch to some French pop songs and throwing a few ecclesiastic and classic tunes into the mix.

Another top selling album.

Finally - and not before time, some might say - their very last (and appropriately entitled?) album "Amen" in 2014, from which "Écris l'histoire" is taken.

The song is the trio's tribute to Lemarchal to mark the 10th anniversary of the Star Academy victory which launched his career.

"His whole story touched me," Troesch said in a recent interview.

"Seeing someone who greatly influenced a generation dying from a disease that still doesn't have a cure - it's a tragedy."

Their intentions (or rather those of their management) might well have been honourable, but the rendition is...well cheesy and cringe-worthy.

And just for good measure, the official video to accompany the song, borrows heavily on one produced by the French "shoegazing" (Internet search time, but basically it appears to be "a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s - trust the French to be bang up to date) band Alcest for their 2012 single "Autre temps".

Take a fast forward look at both (click on the links provided) and you'll see that,  as has been pointed out in many comments on YouTube, there's an uncanny resemblance, although the video from Les Prêtres is less dark, more "uplifting" and well...judge for yourself.

Best of luck!

Gloria - Les Prêtres are back in the French charts

Just when you perhaps thought it was safe to turn on your radio - they're back.

France's singing priests, Les Prêtres, once again have a top-selling album with their second offering "Gloria".

Les Prêtres (screenshot from Glorificamus Te video clip)

It's the follow up to their 2010 chart topper "Spiritus Dei", which has sold 800,000 copies so far, spent 10 - very long - weeks at number one, and is ominously climbing the charts once again.

"Gloria" entered at number one when it was released at the end of April, stayed there for four weeks before slipping a notch and then topped the pile again a fortnight later.

With the tried and tested formula used on their first album, Les Prêtres once again treat record-buyers to a mix of popular French standards and classical music with holy-ish lyrics.

The groups consists of two real life priests Jean-Michel Bardet and Charles Troesch and a former seminarist, Joseph Dinh Nguyen Nguyen, who has since decided not to follow his calling or studies, but pursue his faith by starting a family.

The voices of the warbling men of the cloth might not have improved much since their first album, but studio production has once again made up for any vocal failings they might have.

And the public seems to love it.

There are 14 tracks on the latest album including the annoying "Glorificamus Te" from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

Perhaps we should be more thankful that they didn't don tutus and tights and pirouette their way through the accompanying video.



Other classical pieces given the religious "treatment" include Beethoven's "Ode to joy" or " Le Vent de l'Espoir" in French; a rendition which makes the version from Greek singer Nana Mouskouri sound almost sublime by comparison.

Oh all right let's not exaggerate. That was pretty awful too.

Ravel's "Bolero" becomes a whiny and thin "Au commencement" and poor old Beethoven (what did he do to deserve it?) has his piano sonata no. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 - more commonly known as Sonata Pathétique - magnificently cheesy-fied into "Mon enfant est parti".

If the classical tracks are awful, you might hope that the popular French standards would get off a little more lightly.

No such luck.

Jean-Jaques Goldman is a prolific singer-song writer and has scored hits for himself and others over the year (including a whole album for Céline Dion).

While his 1988 hit "Puisque tu pars" was hardly one to go down in the annals of music history, Les Prêtres manage a cover version that is truly hideous.

And when they turn their vocal cords to French singer Michel Sardou's emblematic "Les lacs du Connemara" it just sounds as though someone has been messing around with the turntable speeds.



And the rest of the album - all 14 tracks - are in the same vein; French standards crucified as only Les Prêtres (and their producers) know how and classical music served up as powerful religious mush with a beat.

Oh well, there's no accounting for taste and the French - well certain album-buying segments anyway - seem to love Les Prêtres.

Should you not yet have succumbed to this ecclesiastical makeover of hits ancient and modern and want to hear snippets of each track, just click here.

Or you can catch the trio in concert in towns and cities around France later this year, including one date at le Palais des Congrès in Paris in November.



Thankfully the number one slot is currently filled by the British singer Adele.

Amen.

But how long before Les Prêtres knock her off the top?