Patsy Gallant
Encyclopedia
Patsy Gallant is a Canadian
pop
singer
and musical theatre
actress. Of Acadian
ancestry, she has recorded and performed in both English
and French
.
in 1967, earning appearances on a number of television variety shows. She later performed at Montreal
's Place des Arts
with Charles Aznavour
, and shortly after, she assembled a team of young and talented creators including Yves Lapierre
, Judi Richards
, and Denis Forcier, who composed and wrote for her in English. In 1971, Gallant co-starred on the weekly television variety show Smash
presented by SRC
, (CBC French television). During the show, Gallant teamed up with singer-songwriter Christine Charbonneau
who gave her career a start by writing most of the lyrics for her two major French albums, produced by Columbia Records
Patsy Gallant (Tout va trop vite), in 1972, followed by Toi l'enfant in 1974. Several of the songs including Tout va trop vite, Un jour comme les autres, Le lit qui craque, and Thank you come again (French version) climb the Québec
charts. Towards the end of 1972, Gallant made her debut in English by releasing Upon My Own, her first English album. Although her two French albums were hits in Quebec and French-Canada, from the English version Get That Ball scored only a minor hit.
With her eye on the American market, Gallant recorded her 1974 album Power in Nashville, Tennessee
. Although the album spawned four moderately popular singles with Save the Last Dance For Me, Make My Living, Doctor's Orders and the title song Upon my own, they were not a commercial breakthrough.
's song Mon Pays
, earning Gallant criticism in Quebec from Gilles Vigneault.for what was perceived as a trivialization of the Québec National anthem (sui generis) . The English lyrics were written by Gene Williams. Gallant later recorded Mon Pays with its original lyrics by Vigneault.
From New York to L.A. was Gallant's only recording to attract notice outside Canada; although overlooked by radio in the U.S. it became a hit in many other countries such as UK (#6), Ireland (#5), Australia (#10), the Netherlands (#15), Norway (#7), South Africa (#5) and Sweden (#17). Sugar Daddy and the album's title song Are you ready for love are also Top 20 Canadian hits that helped Gallant to win Juno Award
s for Best Female Vocalist in 1976 and 1977. From New York to L.A. and Sugar Daddy also received some support in American discos. Gallant followed up in 1977 with her French album Besoin d'amour, which includes a French rendition of Sugar Daddy. Consequently to her sudden disco success, Gallant was given her own disco-variety show, The Patsy Gallant Show, produced and broadcast on CTV
, in 1978 and 1979.
Gallant released the English album Will You Give Me Your Love and the French album Patsy Gallant et Star both in 1978 on Attic Records, and has a hit with Stay Awhile With Me (Aime-moi in French); she also released the English album Patsy! which contains the disco hit Michel. Gallant then released a bilingual greatest hits
package in early 1979, which includes a rendition of the original Mon Pays. The English greatest hits album was reissued in 1995 on Attic Records with new remixes of From New York to L.A., and a Best Of, Compilation, Tout va Trop Vite in 2005.
, Nunsense
, a stage biography of Édith Piaf
, and played the role of Stella Spotlight in the French musical, Starmania
for eight years in the 1990s. Ironically, Luc Plamondon
, the creator of Starmania, wanted Gallant to play Stella in the original stage production in the 1970s; but owing to Gallant's hectic schedule at the time, her managers did not even tell her about Starmania, and the role of Stella Spotlight in the original production went to Diane Dufresne
. She also had a brief stint as the stepmother in Cindy, a musical based on Cinderella
, also written by Plamondon.
Gallant married (and later divorced) guitarist Dwayne Ford, who has appeared on many of Gallant's records, and who produced her Take Another Look album. The couple had a son together, Jason.
After living in Paris for eight years, Gallant returned to Canada in 2005 and released the compilation album Tout va trop vite. The album contained a number of her biggest French hits, early recordings from the 1960s, lost disco-era songs such as It's Got to Be You, and a new re-recording of Sugar Daddy. Gallant has more recently recorded a duet with the French rap group, Treizième Étage, called Faut pas lâcher. The song appeared on the group's latest album. Her latest single Coeur de velours was released in July 2010.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
singer
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
and musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
actress. Of Acadian
Acadian
The Acadians are the descendants of the 17th-century French colonists who settled in Acadia . Acadia was a colony of New France...
ancestry, she has recorded and performed in both English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
.
Successful beginnings in French
Gallant released her first singleSingle (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
in 1967, earning appearances on a number of television variety shows. She later performed at Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
's Place des Arts
Place des Arts
right|frame|View of the Place des Arts esplanade. The Musée d'art contemporain is on the left; behind it is the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, with the Théâtre Maisonneuve on the rightPlace des Arts is a major performing arts centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada....
with Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour, OC is an Armenian-French singer, songwriter, actor, public activist and diplomat. Besides being one of France's most popular and enduring singers, he is also one of the best-known singers in the world...
, and shortly after, she assembled a team of young and talented creators including Yves Lapierre
Yves Lapierre
Yves Lapierre is a Canadian composer, arranger, record producer, and singer. He began his career performing and recording with the folk vocal quartet Les Cailloux during the 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s he was highly active as a composer, arranger, and record producer for a large number of...
, Judi Richards
Judi Richards
Judi Richards is a Canadian pop singer and songwriter.Born in Toronto, Richards is the daughter of musician Bill Richards and actress Billie Mae Richards . She has sung numerous jingles for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Montreal and has performed in concert and on record with a variety...
, and Denis Forcier, who composed and wrote for her in English. In 1971, Gallant co-starred on the weekly television variety show Smash
Smash
Smash may refer to:*Smash! , a British comic of the 1960s* Smash Variety show starring Olivier Guimond and Denis Drouin, co-starring "the Smashettes" Patsy Gallant, Christine Charbonneau, Renée Claude, France Castel, Christyne Chartrand, ,Ranee Lee and Diane Dufresne.*Smash , the name given on an...
presented by SRC
Télévision de Radio-Canada
Télévision de Radio-Canada is a Canadian French language television network. It is owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, known in French as Société Radio-Canada. Headquarters are at Maison Radio-Canada in Montreal, which is also home to the network's flagship station, CBFT-DT...
, (CBC French television). During the show, Gallant teamed up with singer-songwriter Christine Charbonneau
Christine Charbonneau
Christine Charbonneau is a singer andsongwriter born in Montréal, Canada, in 1943. She began her career in 1959, singing and writing songs in the genre that was popular at the time in Quebec music clubs, known as "boîtes à chansons"...
who gave her career a start by writing most of the lyrics for her two major French albums, produced by Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
Patsy Gallant (Tout va trop vite), in 1972, followed by Toi l'enfant in 1974. Several of the songs including Tout va trop vite, Un jour comme les autres, Le lit qui craque, and Thank you come again (French version) climb the Québec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
charts. Towards the end of 1972, Gallant made her debut in English by releasing Upon My Own, her first English album. Although her two French albums were hits in Quebec and French-Canada, from the English version Get That Ball scored only a minor hit.
With her eye on the American market, Gallant recorded her 1974 album Power in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. Although the album spawned four moderately popular singles with Save the Last Dance For Me, Make My Living, Doctor's Orders and the title song Upon my own, they were not a commercial breakthrough.
The Disco Diva
Gallant's greatest popular success came with the 1976 album Are You Ready For Love, and the disco single From New York to L.A.. The latter takes its melody from Gilles VigneaultGilles Vigneault
Gilles Vigneault, is a Canadian poet, publisher and singer-songwriter, and well-known Quebec nationalist and sovereigntist.A poet deeply rooted in his native Quebec, Vigneault has become an icon at home and Quebec ambassador abroad...
's song Mon Pays
Mon Pays
"Mon pays" is a song composed by Gilles Vigneault in 1964.The song was written for the NFB film La Neige a fondu sur la Manicouagan, directed by Arthur Lamothe...
, earning Gallant criticism in Quebec from Gilles Vigneault.for what was perceived as a trivialization of the Québec National anthem (sui generis) . The English lyrics were written by Gene Williams. Gallant later recorded Mon Pays with its original lyrics by Vigneault.
From New York to L.A. was Gallant's only recording to attract notice outside Canada; although overlooked by radio in the U.S. it became a hit in many other countries such as UK (#6), Ireland (#5), Australia (#10), the Netherlands (#15), Norway (#7), South Africa (#5) and Sweden (#17). Sugar Daddy and the album's title song Are you ready for love are also Top 20 Canadian hits that helped Gallant to win Juno Award
Juno Award
The Juno Awards are presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music...
s for Best Female Vocalist in 1976 and 1977. From New York to L.A. and Sugar Daddy also received some support in American discos. Gallant followed up in 1977 with her French album Besoin d'amour, which includes a French rendition of Sugar Daddy. Consequently to her sudden disco success, Gallant was given her own disco-variety show, The Patsy Gallant Show, produced and broadcast on CTV
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
, in 1978 and 1979.
Gallant released the English album Will You Give Me Your Love and the French album Patsy Gallant et Star both in 1978 on Attic Records, and has a hit with Stay Awhile With Me (Aime-moi in French); she also released the English album Patsy! which contains the disco hit Michel. Gallant then released a bilingual greatest hits
Greatest hits
A greatest hits album is a music compilation album of successful, previously released songs by a particular artist or band...
package in early 1979, which includes a rendition of the original Mon Pays. The English greatest hits album was reissued in 1995 on Attic Records with new remixes of From New York to L.A., and a Best Of, Compilation, Tout va Trop Vite in 2005.
Achievement through musicals
With the decline of disco, Gallant's subsequent albums did not sell well. After her 1984 album Take Another Look, she retreated from the music business, and in the late 1980s began taking roles in theatre musicals. She has appeared in productions of CatsCats (musical)
Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot...
, Nunsense
Nunsense
Nunsense is a musical comedy with a book, music, and lyrics by Dan Goggin. Originating as a line of greeting cards, Goggin expanded the concept into a cabaret that ran for 38 weeks, and eventually into a full-length musical...
, a stage biography of Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf , born Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer and cultural icon who became widely regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads...
, and played the role of Stella Spotlight in the French musical, Starmania
Starmania
Starmania is a French/Québécois rock opera written in 1976 with music by Michel Berger and lyrics by Luc Plamondon. Some of its songs have passed into mainstream Francophone pop culture.-Genesis:...
for eight years in the 1990s. Ironically, Luc Plamondon
Luc Plamondon
Luc Plamondon, OC, CQ is a French-Canadian lyricist.-Career:Plamondon has written for many artists, notably the Québécois singers Bruno Pelletier, Diane Dufresne, Robert Charlebois, Céline Dion, Ginette Reno, Fabienne Thibeault, Martine St. Clair, and Garou, as well as the French singers Julien...
, the creator of Starmania, wanted Gallant to play Stella in the original stage production in the 1970s; but owing to Gallant's hectic schedule at the time, her managers did not even tell her about Starmania, and the role of Stella Spotlight in the original production went to Diane Dufresne
Diane Dufresne
Diane Dufresne, CQ is a singer and painter, and has sung a number of classics of Quebec repertoire of popular songs....
. She also had a brief stint as the stepmother in Cindy, a musical based on Cinderella
Cinderella
"Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper" is a folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune...
, also written by Plamondon.
Gallant married (and later divorced) guitarist Dwayne Ford, who has appeared on many of Gallant's records, and who produced her Take Another Look album. The couple had a son together, Jason.
After living in Paris for eight years, Gallant returned to Canada in 2005 and released the compilation album Tout va trop vite. The album contained a number of her biggest French hits, early recordings from the 1960s, lost disco-era songs such as It's Got to Be You, and a new re-recording of Sugar Daddy. Gallant has more recently recorded a duet with the French rap group, Treizième Étage, called Faut pas lâcher. The song appeared on the group's latest album. Her latest single Coeur de velours was released in July 2010.
Albums
- Patsy Gallant (Tout va trop vite) (1972)
- Upon My Own (1972)
- Power (1973)
- Toi l'enfant (1974)
- Are You Ready For Love (1976)
- Besoin D'Amour (1977)
- Will You Give Me Your Love? (1977)
- Patsy! (1978)
- Et Star (1978)
- Greatest Hits / Ses Plus Grands Succès (1979)
- Stranger in the Mirror (1980)
- Amoureuse (1981)
- Take Another Look (1984)
- Tout va Trop Vite (2005)
Singles
| Year | Song | CAN Canadian Singles Chart The Canadian Singles Chart is currently compiled by the U.S.-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan . The chart is compiled every Wednesday, and is published by Jam! Canoe on Thursdays.... |
CAN AC | UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | "Get That Ball" | 32 | 27 | - |
| 1973 | "I Don't Know Why" | - | 47 | - |
| 1974 | "Save the Last Dance for Me" | - | 97 | - |
| "Raconte" | - | 42 | - | |
| 1975 | "Doctor's Orders" | 83 | - | - |
| "Makin' Love in My Mind" | 66 | - | - | |
| 1976 | "From New York to L.A." | 6 | 1 | 6 |
| 1977 | "Are You Ready for Love?" | 16 | 4 | - |
| "Sugar Daddy" | 9 | 6 | - | |
| 1978 | "Back to the City" | 69 | - | - |
| "Stay Awhile with Me" | 77 | 28 | - | |
| "Every Step of the Way" | - | 26 | - | |
| 1979 | "O Michel" | - | 22 | - |
| "We'll Find a Way" |
94 | - | - | |
| 1980 | "How Many Lonely Nights" | - | 27 | - |
| "Ce matin-la" | ? | - | - | |
| 1981 | "Don't Forget About Me" | - | 24 | - |
JUNO Awards
- 1975 Female Vocalist of the Year (Nomination)
- 1977 Best Selling Single: "From New York to LA" (Nomination)
- 1977 Female Vocalist of the Year (Win)
- 1977 Producer of the Year: "From New York to LA" (Nomination)
- 1978 Best Selling Single: "Sugar Daddy" (Win)
- 1978 Female Vocalist of the Year (Win)
- 1978 Producer of the Year: "Sugar Daddy" (Nomination)
- 1979 Female Vocalist of the Year (Nomination)
- Carlisle Miller nominated for Composer of the Year (1978) for "Sugar Daddy"
- Gilles Vigneault nominated for Composer of the Year and Gene Williams for lyrics (1977) for "From New York to L.A."