Charles Trenet, French singer, 87

["Deathwatch Central" <cdw@slick.org>]

Monday February 19 1:11 PM ET

French Singer Charles Trenet Dies 

By CECILE ROUX, Associated Press Writer 

PARIS (AP) - Legendary singer and songwriter Charles Trenet, whose
fanciful ballads and poetic love songs captured the hearts of the French
for more than six decades, has died of a stroke. He was 87.

Trenet, who wrote nearly 1,000 songs and gained world renown with the
romantic ballad, ``La Mer'' (The Sea), was once referred to by playwright
Jean Cocteau as France's ``last troubadour.'' He died Sunday evening in a
hospital in the southeast Paris suburb of Creteil.

Condolences poured in Monday from France's leaders and entertainers while
radio stations played his music non-stop.

President Jacques Chirac, who decorated Trenet in 1998 as a Commander of
the Legion of Honor - France's highest civilian honor - called Trenet ``a
magician with words, an inventor of rhythms.''

``The very symbol of a happy and imaginative France, he was for every one
of us a close friend and a familiar figure,'' Chirac said in a statement.

Trenet was known for his flashing smile, tilted-back hat and buttonhole
carnation. His music blended images of fantasy and clever word plays.

``I make songs like an apple tree makes apples,'' Trenet once said. ``They
come from inside of me.''

Known as Le Fou Chantant (The Singing Fool), Trenet was a music hall
veteran and a master of the special brand of poetic music known as ``la
chanson francaise,'' which inspired generations of songwriters.

Singer Charles Aznavour, a close friend of Trenet's, said that he was
mourning ``the disappearance of a giant,'' whose style paved the way for
France's great contemporary crooners: Georges Brassens, Jacques Brel and
Serge Gainsbourg. ``What we became, is thanks to Trenet,'' Aznavour told
Europe-1 television.

Born May 18, 1913 in Narbonne, in southern France, Trenet wrote his first
song at the age of 10. He moved to Paris in 1933 and soon became a star.

He was drafted into military service in 1936, and wrote the sentimental,
patriotic, ``Douce France,'' (Sweet France) while still in uniform in
1943.

When World War II ended, Trenet spent six years abroad, including several
years in the United States. He bought an apartment in New York, near the
Empire State Building, appeared in Broadway cabarets and befriended Louis
Armstrong and Charlie Chaplin.

He is probably best known for ``La Mer,'' which was recorded in 1946 and
later remade by American Bobby Darin as ``Beyond the Sea'' in 1960.

Trenet returned to France in 1951 and resumed a celebrated career that
included five novels and lead roles in a dozen films.

He retired in 1971, but he loved the stage too much to stay away. He
released a new album of 14 songs in 1999, and performed three sellout
concerts at Paris' Salle Pleyel.

A religious ceremony was to be held Friday at Paris' La Madeleine
church. Trenet's ashes were to be scattered in Narbonne. 



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