La Question (album)

La Question is a studio album by the French popular singer Françoise Hardy. It was released in France in 1971, on LP, production Hypopotam/Sonopresse (HY 30.902). Like many of Hardy's earlier albums, it was published with no title, except for her name on the cover; since its 1995 French reissue onto compact disc, it has been referred to with the title of its most commercially successful song: "La Question".

Reception

La Question is one of Francoise Hardy's most acclaimed albums, as well as one of her most well known in America. Richie Unterberger, writing for Allmusic, gave the album four-and-a-half out of five stars, speculating that it may be her best post-60's album: "As far as fireside romantic music goes, it beats the hell out of José Feliciano." The album is also ranked in the Guardian's 1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die, and is one of her two albums bubbling under the top 3000 albums on acclaimedmusic.net (the other is Comment te dire adieu?).

Track listing

It was around this time Hardy began to collaborate with Brazilian guitarist Tuca, so Françoise Hardy serves as a co-writer for some songs, although less than her previous albums. All music, in fact, was arranged by Tuca and Raymond Donnez.

Françoise Hardy

Françoise Madeleine Hardy (French: [fʁɑ̃.swaːz aʁ.di]; born 17 January 1944) is a French singer and actress. Hardy is a popular figure in music and fashion.

Biography

Hardy grew up in the 9th arrondissement of Paris with her younger sister Michèle. Her parents lived apart when she was young; her father contributed little financially to the family and had little to do with his daughters. He was, however, persuaded by the girls' mother to buy Françoise a guitar for her birthday as a reward for passing her baccalauréat.

Her early musical influences were the French chanson stars Charles Trenet and Cora Vaucaire as well as Anglophone singers Paul Anka, the Everly Brothers, Cliff Richard, Connie Francis and Marty Wilde whom she heard on the English-language radio station, Radio Luxembourg.

After a year at the Sorbonne she answered a newspaper advertisement looking for young singers. Hardy signed her first contract with the record label Vogue in November 1961. In April 1962, shortly after she left university, her first record "Oh Oh Chéri" appeared, written by Johnny Hallyday's writing duo. Her own flip side of the record, "Tous les garçons et les filles" became a success, riding the wave of Yé-yé music in France. It sold over a million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The track peaked at No. 36 in the UK Singles Chart in 1964. She reportedly hated the song saying it was recorded "in three hours with the worst four musicians in Paris." She was dating photographer Jean-Marie Périer at this time and his shots featured on many of her record sleeves.

La Question

La Question (French for "The question") is a book by Henri Alleg, published in 1958. It is famous for precisely describing the methods of torture used by French paratroopers during the Algerian War from the point of view of a victim. La Question was censored in France after selling 60,000 copies in two weeks.

Author

Henri Alleg, a journalist, was formerly editor of the newspaper Alger Républicain, who went underground when its publication was banned. The resulting interrogation aimed at identifying the people who had supported him, and whom Alleg was determined to protect.

He wrote the autobiographical account in the Barberousse prison of Algiers. He managed to smuggle out the pages with the help of his lawyers.

Subject

The book is a chronological account of the author's imprisonment and ordeals in El-Biar and then Lodi camps. La Question opens with the statement: "By attacking corrupt Frenchmen, it is France that I am defending". (En attaquant les Français corrompus, c’est la France que je défends.)La Question then narrates Alleg's arrest on 12 June 1957 by paratroopers of Jacques Massu's 10e Division Parachutiste. Alleg was visiting Maurice Audin, who had been arrested the day before and whose apartment the paratroopers had turned into a trap.

Françoise

Françoise may refer to: