Katty Line

A chance meeting with producer Ken Lean launched Katty Line – somewhat reluctantly – onto the French yé-yé scene. She is rated among French femme pop fans for a slew of top releases, particularly N’hésite pas quand l’amour t’appelle, her take on The Supremes’ Back in my arms again. However, thanks to Adriano Celentano, she would find greater success over the border in Italy at the end of the decade – until a horrific car accident cut short her career.

Katty Line was born Catherine Boloban on 13 March 1947 in Sucy-en-Brie in the south-eastern suburbs of Paris. One of four sisters, she learned to play the piano and took dance classes as a child.

Her singing career was a matter of being in the right place at the right time – having simply gone for a drink with a friend who worked in the music industry. It was to prove an evening that would change her life. Among the friend’s colleagues was Ken Lean, a Swiss-born producer who had worked with singers such as Evy and Hugues Aufray and who has been compared to Phil Spector.

Catherine and Lean were instantly attracted to each other. As artistic director at the Barclay record label, Lean saw a career for the young blonde. Among his chat-up lines was the offer of a chance to cut a record – an idea that didn’t appeal to her at all.

Eventually, however, Lean persuaded her into the studio and had her provide back-up vocals for pop group Les Dauphins on their song Petite fille, in 1965.

Now that she was no longer a studio virgin, Lean quickly set about creating a career for his by-now girlfriend. Taking complete control of her image and her sound, he gave her the stage name Katty Line – as it sounded similar to his own professional moniker (his real name was René Porchet). Lean was a fan of Motown and intended to have his latest signing cut a version of The Supremes’ Baby love. However, Annie Philippe beat her to it, so he opted to have Katty record a take on the Detroit trio’s Back in my arms again instead.

The result was the terrific N’hésite pas quand l’amour t’appelle, which was issued as the lead track of her debut EP in the autumn of 1965.

With the equally good Mort Shuman-penned Si je sors avec toi le samedi soir also included on the release, the EP is highly prized among fans of Gallic girl pop.

For the follow up, Lean had French lyrics written for German singer Marion’s hit Er ist wieder da, making it Puisque tu dors, j’ose te dire. The EP also featured a take on US teen star Bernadette Peters’ And the trouble with me is you, retitled Non tu n’as rien compris, plus two original compositions, Noël Deschamps’ Je cherche un petit homme and Gérard Hugé and Claude Righi’s Je n’attends plus que toi.

Katty Line is somewhat dismissive of some of her material from this period. She has since said that she would have preferred a greater say in what she recorded. Plus, unhappy with the way her voice sounded, she also invested in some singing lessons.

She switched to the Disc AZ label for the release of Les garcons, a take on Graham Bonney’s Super girl, in June 1966. The original Ma jeune vie proved the other highlight of the release.

The André Salvet and Claude Carrère composition Les mots croisés became Katty Line’s final release of the year. The EP was of a consistently high standard, thanks to the mournful ballad Dis-lui bien que je pense à lui and Katty’s take on Nancy Sinatra’s How does that grab you, darlin’, Ne fais pas la tête.

Television appearances at home and in Spain helped to promote the release, and features in magazines Salut les copains and Mademoiselle âge tendre raised Katty’s profile further.