Julien Clerc Over the Years

​​Julien Clerc (b. 1947) has achieved exceptional longevity and productivity during a career that began in 1968 and continues today. Clerc changed his birth name of Paul-Alain Leclerc (1947) to Julien Clerc in 1968 when signing his first music contract with Pathé Marconi. His father, a manager at UNESCO in Paris, and his Guadaloupian mother, Évelyn Merlot, divorced when he was 2 years old though this Antillean heritage animated the spirit of songs like “Melissa” (1984). With encouragement from his new step-mother, Ghislaine Téry, he began learning piano at age 6. At the age of only 21 in 1969, his first album, Julien Clerc, won the Académie Charles Cros Grand Prix du Disque award for French Song. He became a star by the age of 24 and has had a long, varied and successful career.
 
Clerc himself was primarily a composer and singer with a distinctive vibrato voice and for long an ample head of hair. As such, his relationship with “paroliers” (lyricists) to pair his melodies with suitable words was hugely important throughout his remarkably long career. Early on in 1964 at the Lyceé Lakanal, he met Maurice Vallet (“Momo”), his first “parolier.” They became fast friends and lifelong collaborators. Eventually, Momo wrote at least 30 songs for Julien.
 
A serendipitous meeting in 1967 at the café L’Écritoire on the place de la Sorbonne in Paris with Étienne Roda-Gil (1941-2004) became another marker in his early career. The son of communist Spanish exiles, Roda-Gil became a giant of French songwriting commonly known as the “industrial poet.” He was credited with 750 songs written for generations of French singers. Roda-Gil wrote lyrics for Clerc’s first 10 albums from 1968 to 1980 when their collaboration lapsed. In 1992, the relationship was restored with the album “Utile” and lasted until Roda-Gil’s death in 2004.
 
After his debut opening act for Gilbert Bécaud at the “Olympia” music hall in 1969, Clerc took the lead role in the musical “Hair” when it opened in Paris that year and his portrayal of Claude Bukowski propelled his popularity. By 1974 he had accumulated five “disques d’or” (gold records) in recognition of high sales of his first albums.
 
The year 1975 became a year of change for Clerc, who was rebounding from a breakup with his girlfriend France Gall after 5 years of co-habitation. During the following years he tried out new songwriters including Maxime Le Forestier who wrote “J’ai eu 30 ans” (“I”ve Just Turned 30”) and Jean Loup Dabadie (“Ma préférence”). This led eventually to a rupture with Roda-Gil. Over time, Clerc relied on a panoply of other collaborators that included Serge Gainsbourg, Luc Plamondon, Alain Souchon Charles Aznavour, Maxime Le Forestier, Françoise Hardy, David McNeil, Benjamin Biolay and Carla Bruni. During the same years, he switched record companies from Pathé-Marconi to Virgin, and lost his long hair.
 
Both songs featured on this website have received the highest awards. In 1991, “Fais moi une place” was selected best chanson at the Victoires de la musique while “Les Séparés” received the “grand prix Rolf Marbot” in 1998 from the Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique (SACEM).
 
Julien Clerc Songs
Fais moi une place, 1989
Les séparés, 1997