Philippe Clay - Je suis sous / Hello Dolly / Les fesses d'Irma / Abécédaire (1965)

By the mid-1960s, Philippe Clay (born Philippe Mathevet, 1927–2007) had reached a pivotal crossroads in his career. A headliner at the Paris Olympia from 1957 to 1962, he found himself in the shadow of the yé-yé wave — yet his repertoire of this period reveals an artistic maturity that set him apart from the era's fashionable newcomers.
This release compiles key singles from 1963–1965, originally issued on the Fontana label (distributed through Mercury/Philips), gathered under a title drawn from its best-known tracks. Rather than a conceptual studio album, it serves as a documentary cross-section of a singular artist in transition: from conqueror of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés cabarets to a performer searching for a new idiom to speak to his changing times.
Known for his tall, lean silhouette and his interpretations of songs by Charles Aznavour, Claude Nougaro, Boris Vian, and Serge Gainsbourg, Clay drew on a rich palette of authorial voices that defines this collection's range — from the ironic absurdism of «Les fesses d'Irma» to the jazz-inflected lyricism of «Le blues de Notre-Dame», from the urban poetry of «Au cœur des villes» to the playful virtuosity of «Abécédaire». The inclusion of a French rendition of the Broadway hit «Hello Dolly» speaks to his international ambitions and his ability to reframe English-language material within the tradition of the French chanson.
Clay's training in mime and his actor's instinct gave his performances an expressive physicality unique in French music hall — enhanced by his pioneering use of the handheld wireless microphone, one of the first in the genre. The arrangements, crafted by conductors François Rauber and Jean-Paul Mengeon, blend chamber orchestra textures with jazz rhythmic accents, creating a sonic framework in which Clay's command of literary material comes fully into its own.

Tracklist:
1-1 Philippe Clay - Je suis sous [3:11]
1-2 Philippe Clay - Hello Dolly [2:41]
1-3 Philippe Clay - Lily tâches de rousseur [2:05]
1-4 Philippe Clay - Le blues de Notre-Dame [4:08]
1-5 Philippe Clay - Avec ma grande gueule [3:09]
1-6 Philippe Clay - Les fesses d’Irma [2:23]
1-7 Philippe Clay - Au cœur des villes [2:49]
1-8 Philippe Clay - Incontestablement [2:19]
1-9 Philippe Clay - Le violon d’Amérique [2:19]
1-10 Philippe Clay - Chanson pour Tézigue [2:05]
1-11 Philippe Clay - Manger porteur [3:42]
1-12 Philippe Clay - Abécédaire [2:01]