One of the great French singers of the 1950's, Line Renaud frequently performed in the States and was very popular with fans of early TV variety shows.
Tonight it's a track she recorded in 1957 and features the noted American Pop/Gospel group The Golden Gate Quartet doing background vocals. Trop Tard (pronounced Tro Tar and meaning Too Late) wasn't a hit but featuring a black American vocal backup was a big plus at the time and Renaud did her level best to get into that relatively new genre of Rock n' Roll. And enlisting the services of a well known American vocal group was icing on the cake, even if they were relegated to "ooh's and aah's and pow's".
Although you certainly wouldn't consider Trop Tard to be a rock n' roll disc, it was more along the lines of a Vegas production number. Still, a lot of French artists of the 50's were dabbling in that new and exciting form and Renaud found wide appeal with both segments of her audience.
Maybe this week we'll check out what the rest of Europe was doing around this time, musically.
Possibly some big surprises.
