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French singer Sacha Distel has died after a long illness at the age of 71.
Distel, best known for a string of hits in the 1960s and 1970s, started out in music as a professional jazz guitarist at the age of 16.
He went on to become a household name across the world during a career which peaked with his cover version of Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.
He died on Thursday in Rayol-Canadel in the region of Var, the AFP news agency reported.
Distel scored his first hit with Scoubidou in 1958 and went on to record more than 200 songs.
He worked alongside some of the music greats including Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Bennett and Quincy Jones.
Considered a heart-throb around the world, he also appeared in a number of French films and television programmes.
He even had his own TV show in the US, where he was also hugely popular.
Distel made his British theatre debut as smooth-talking lawyer Billy Flynn in the London West End production of the Bob Fosse musical Chicago in 2001.



He was considered as a charming crooner but what most people don't know is that he was a terrific jazz guitarist.
He'll be missed.

Really a bad week for us in France.

French actor, singer Serge Reggiani dies at 82

PARIS, July 23 (AFP) - The French singer and actor Serge Reggiani died overnight of a heart atack at the age of 82, his agent said Friday.

Born in Italy in 1922, Reggiani came to France with his parents at the age of eight, and after acting school was discovered by Jean Cocteau who gave him a role in his wartime theatrical production of "Les parents terribles."

He moved into film with Marcel Carne's 1946 "Les portes de la nuit," and won his laurels with his interpretation of a hoodlum in love with Simone Signoret in Jacques Becker's "Casque d'Or." Over the next half century he appeared in some 80 films. In 1965 he started a second career as a singer, with the help of Signoret and her husband Yves Montand.

His first album was of songs based on texts by the cult writer Boris Vian. His next album in 1967 forged his reputation, and in the 1970s he was one of the most acclaimed performers of French "chanson." Though in his 40s, his craggy looks and bad-boy image assured him an enormous following among the young.

Among the scores of sings he recorded, the most famous include "Sarah," "Les loups sont entres dans Paris," and "La femme qui est dans mon lit."

Reggiani struggled with alcoholism for a long period and was gravely affected by the 1980 suicide of his 33-year-old son Stephan. In later life he turned to painting, and gave a number of exhibitions of his work.

President Jacques Chirac led tributes Friday, saying that Reggiani "had a rare sensibility. He sang and embodied every emotion, every melancholy, every nostalgia."

"Socialists remember that Serge Reggiani was part of, or even led, all the battles of the left. On many occasions he expressed his commitment to the cause that was closest to his heart: human dignity and, above all, liberty," the Socialist party said.

His death came a day after that of another well-known French singer, Sacha Distel. Georges Moustaki, a singer-songwriter who composed several works for Reggiani, said: "These two deaths of people so close to me leave me shattered. .... Serge was an exceptional catalyst. He knew how to get exactly what he wanted from you - great songs."

Hi, Remi:

Sorry to hear about the loss of two of your country's most creative. I just wanted to reply also that when I saw the name of Georges Moustaki, I wanted to say I've listened to several of his albums. In fact, when I was in Paris in my late teens, my sister asked me to search out a Moustaki album for her so I spent a morning in Paris finding it for her. I particularly like one of his songs that ends in "oublie...oublie." I don't remember the title. But I thought it was very deep and haunting.