Il était une fois

Formed by studio musicians and singer Joëlle Morgensen, the group Il Était Une Fois enjoyed considerable success in the 1970s. Born in Long Island (New York, USA) on February 3, 1953, Joëlle Morgensen was vacationing in Saint-Tropez in the summer of 1969, when she met two of Michel Polnareff's musicians, guitarist and singer Serge Koolenn and drummer Richard Dewitte, who already had a solid background having played together in several bands. The love affair between Joëlle Morgensen and Serge Koolenn develops into a duo, Serge et Joëlle, which records a single, "Sonne, carillonne", before giving birth to a group called Il Était Une Fois, with three other members: Lionel Gaillardin (guitar), Christian Burguière (keyboards) and Bruno Walker (bass). After a first album of the same name, featuring the hit "Rien qu'un ciel", Burguière and Walker left the group, replaced by Jean-Louis Dronne and Daniel Schnitzer respectively, to record songs for the film La Rage aux poings (1973) and the hits "Les Filles du mercredi " (1973), "Viens faire un tour sous la pluie" (1975) and "J'ai encore rêvé d'elle " (1975), their three biggest hits before the release of the album Ils Vécurent Heureux (1975). While the group was climbing the charts and performing at the Olympia, 1977 saw the release of the album Tourne la Page, recorded with the support of new musicians including Georges Rodi, Marc Chantereau and Christian Morin, around the original trio. The following year, the album Pomme and its homonymous hit were supported by such big names as Klaus Voormann, Jim Gordon and Amos Garrett. After a final single, "La Clé des cœurs " in 1978, the pop group was unable to survive the break-up of the central couple. Serge Koolenn resumed his life as a studio musician. He formed the short-lived group M.E.K.S., then made two solo albums, while Joëlle Morgensen recorded the album Joëlle... Tout Court (1980). On May 15, 1982, she died of pulmonary edema at the age of 29. Serge Koolenn died of cancer on April 28, 2015, at the age of 68.