Sheila

Our pick of the pops

French singer Sheila was the most successful of the yé-yé girls of the 1960s, before turning to disco in the 1970s. She sold over 70 million records over the course of her career.

She was born Annie Chancel on 16 August 1945. Her father was a shopkeeper in the town of Créteil.

In 1962 she auditioned in Paris for record producer Henri Leproux, with backing from Les Guitar Brothers. She was offered a contract and the search began for a song for her debut release. A cover of American singer Tommy Roe’s Sheila was chosen – and with it the 17 year old earned her stage moniker. The single flopped but the name remained.

The follow up, the original composition L’école est finie, released in spring 1963, made her a household name and sold over a million copies.

She enjoyed further hits that year, Pendant les vacances (a cover of the Everly Brothers’ All I have to do is dream), Première surprise partie and Le sifflet des copains, before embarking on her first tour.

Her material was, arguably, the cheesiest of the yé-yés’, but she was taken to the nation’s heart. Her trademark ponytails became de rigueur among France’s teenage girls and, to cash in on their appetite for her stage outfits, a Boutique de

Sheila shop was opened in 1964. With her

father in charge, the shop became a chain of

over 50 stores spread throughout the country.

Further hits ensued, including Hello petite

fille, Chaque instant de chaque jour and

Vous les copains, je ne vous oublierai

jamais (a cover of Do wah diddy diddy).

1965 saw her enjoy successes with C’est toi

que j’aime, Devant le juke-box (a cover of

Gene Pitney’s If I didn’t have a dime,

performed as a duet with Akim) and Le

folklore américain, all of which were included

on her fourth LP, Tous les deux. The album

was an eclectic mix of French originals and

covers of international hits such as the

Seekers’ I’ll never find another you (Je n’en

veux pas d’autre que toi), Skeeter Davis’

camp Sunglasses (Dans la glace) and the

Sonny Bono-penned Laugh at me (À la même heure).

After scoring another hit with Le cinéma in early 1966, she starred in her first film, Bang bang, where she played a young woman who inherits a private detective agency, and topped the charts with the title track, a cover of the Cher song.

She turned down offers of further film roles to concentrate on her singing career and enjoyed a hit with L’heure de la sortie, also taken from the film soundtrack.

In 1967, the releases La famille and the huge Adios amor were included on a fifth album, Dans une heure. Surprisingly, the lushly orchestrated title track wasn’t issued as the lead on an EP – instead it was relegated to the flip of the, frankly, dreadful Le kilt later that year.

The hit machine showed little sign of running out in the late 1960s, and she scored further successes with Quand une fille aime un garcon, Dalila (a cover of Tom Jones’s Delilah), Petite fille de français moyen and La vamp in 1968 and Arlekin, Love, maestro, please and Oncle Jo in 1969.

She carried on as the darling of the French record-buying public in the 1970s. In 1971, she enjoyed one of the biggest hits of her career with Les rois mages, a cover of Scottish group Middle of the Road’s Tweedle dee, Tweedle dum.

In the late 70s, she turned to disco and started singing in English. With backing dancers B. Devotion, she scored huge international successes with Singin’ in the rain and Spacer.