You Oughta Know: Françoise Hardy, EN ANGLAIS

It’s National Women’s History Month, and if you’ve been checking out Rhino.com since March began, then you know that we’re making a concerted effort to utilize a number of our regular features as opportunities to spotlight female artists.

Today, we’re focusing in on a particular album by one of the most famous female vocalists in French history, and while we know some folks will cringe over our choice to spotlight a Françoise Hardy album where she sings in English, we say that if you’re an English-speaking individual who wants a gateway drug into Hardy’s career, then you oughta know EN ANGLAIS.

Released in the UK in October 1968, EN ANGLAIS was recorded at London’s Olympic Studios, but it wasn’t a one-man operation when it came to its production. It’s credited as an Asparagus Production, a moniker which included Hardy, Jacques Wolfsohn, and Leon Cabat, the trio which had also produced Hardy’s previous album, MA JEUNESSE FOUT LE CAMP... As for the songs, it’s filled with tunes which should be familiar to most listeners, including Tim Hardin’s “Hang On to a Dream,” Carole King’s “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” the Kinks’ “Who’ll Be the Next in Line,” Phil Ochs’ “There But for Fortune,” Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be the Day,” and “Loving You” and “Lonesome Town,” tunes made popular by Elvis Presley and Rick Nelson, respectively.

EN ANGLAIS didn’t really do anything to raise Hardy’s profile outside of France, but over the years it’s served as an opportunity for those who might not initially investigate the catalog of someone who sings in a language that they don’t speak. With a voice that could leave men and women both weak in the knees, once you’ve heard Hardy, you really won’t care what she’s singing, you’ll just want to keep hearing her sing.