Alain BASHUNG

Though he was present at the birth of '60s rock & roll in France, it took another 15 years for Alain Bashung's star to rise. Born in Paris in 1947, he was raised in Alsace but left home at the age of 16 to begin playing in a cover band with several friends. The group lasted several years, until Bashung began recording on his own, for Philips, in 1966. Ten years would pass before any degree of success, though he did play a prominent role in 1972's La Revolution Française, the French rock opera produced by Claude-Michel Schoenberg.
In 1976, Alain Bashung began working with lyricist Boris Bergman and songwriter Andy Scott. The change in atmosphere proved helpful, and after test runs on Bashung's long-delayed 1977 debut album and 1979's Roulette Russe, the 1980 single "Gaby, Oh Gaby" became a monster hit. After Bashung bec...