Richard Anthony

A rock pioneer in France, Richard Anthony enjoyed many successes during the yé-yé period and beyond. Born Ricardo Abraham Btesh in Cairo, Egypt, on January 13, 1938, to a family of Syrian and English descent, he spent his early years in his native country, before his parents went into exile in Argentina and then England. Arriving in France in 1951, he worked as a sales representative after his studies and frequented jazz clubs, playing saxophone at the Vieux-Colombier. The discovery of American rock'n'roll fascinated the young amateur musician, who decided to adapt it to French and took the name Richard Anthony. Signed by Columbia's French subsidiary, in 1958 he recorded the first songs of the genre that were not parodic but sincere: Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue " and "Tu m'étais destinée", based on Paul Anka's "You Are My Destiny". Although the reception of this first EP was modest, success soon followed with "Nouvelle vague" (1959), inspired by the Coasters' "Three Cool Cats". From then on, each of his records aroused youthful enthusiasm, and sales soared with the emblematic tracks of the new decade, "Itsy bitsy, petit bikini" and "Fiche le camp, Jack " (1961). The victim of a bottle-throwing incident at the rock'n'roll festival held at the Palais des Sports, Richard Anthony is often portrayed as too much of a "family" singer for the more rebellious fringe of the public. Nevertheless, his popularity doesn't wane with "J'entends siffler le train" (1962) and the arrival of the twist, which he anticipated the same year with "Let's Twist Again" and "J'irai twister le blues". Successes, like his fortune, accumulated to the rhythm of "C'est ma fête", "Donne-moi ma chance" (1963) and "À présent tu peux t'en aller" (1964). A polyglot, he recorded Richard à Londres (1965) in the language of Shakespeare, and continued to adapt other pop hits and standards of all kinds, from "Aranjuez, mon amour " (1967) to the hits "Le Sirop Typhon" (1969) and "Amoureux de ma femme" (1974). After moving to Los Angeles in 1982, he got into trouble with the tax authorities and prepared for retirement on the Côte d'Azur, writing his memoirs and returning to song in 1996 with the album Sentimental. In 2006, the artist, who had racked up twenty-one number-one hits in his career, established himself as the star of the Âge tendre et tête de bois tour. Promoted to the rank of Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2011, he battled cancer until his death at his home in Pégomas (Alpes-Maritimes) on April 20, 2015, at the age of 77.