France Joli

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France Joli
Birth nameFrance Joly
Also known asFrance Joli
Born (1963-02-02) February 2, 1963 (age 61)
CBS
WebsiteOfficial website

France Joli (French: [fʁɑ̃s ʒɔli]; née Joly; born February 2, 1963)[1] is a Canadian singer, best known for the disco classics "Come to Me" and "Gonna Get Over You".

Teen stardom

Born France Joly in Montreal, Quebec, Canada,[2] Joli grew up in Dorion. Her father was a hardware merchant and her mother was a teacher.

As early as age four, Joli was performing for relatives lip-syncing to Barbra Streisand records while handling a skipping rope like a microphone; she had appeared on television by age six. At age 11, Joli left the public school system (her mother tutored her) to concentrate on her performing career appearing regularly in television commercials and talent shows. A mutual acquaintance suggested Joli meet up with musician Tony Green who Joli approached backstage after he had given a concert, Joli inviting Green to be her record producer. Green did not take the 13-year-old Joli seriously: he recalled: "To get rid of her I [told] her to keep in touch." According to one source, Joli eventually visited Green's home to sing for him; it is also reported that Green first heard Joli sing from the audience of an "end of school year show" in which she performed in the fall of 1978. Both accounts concur that Green first heard Joli singing along with a Streisand record. Green had written the song "Come to Me" for Joli by the next day.[2]

When the producer Green originally commissioned to record Joli indicated a desire to develop Joli as a Francophone singer, Green himself took over production duties for Joli. The tracks Joli cut with Green were picked up by

Fire Island
on July 7, 1979, before an estimated audience of five thousand.

"Come to Me" began a three-week reign atop the

Hot Dance Club Play on September 22, 1979, and the France Joli album rose to No. 26. On the Billboard Hot 100. "Come to Me" peaked at No. 15 on November 17, 1979.[2]

Joli made her network television debut on October 26, 1979, broadcast of The Midnight Special and she co-hosted the December 7 episode. Her other TV credits included episodes of the talk shows of Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin and Dinah Shore and also a Bob Hope special.

1980 saw the release of Joli's second album Tonight,[2] with the ballad "This Time (I'm Giving All I've Got)" released as a single bubbling under for two weeks peaking at No. 103: this attempt to curry favor in the mainstream market was unsuccessful with Joli receiving support only in the dance club market, where the tracks "The Heart to Break the Heart" and "Feel Like Dancing" achieved a joint position of No. 3: Tonight was ranked on the Billboard album chart at No. 175.[3]

In 1981, Joli's third album Now – produced by Ray Reid and William Anderson from

the Commodores
during their American tour of 1981, was still viewed as having star potential: she departed the dance music-oriented Prelude label for Epic Records.

  • 1The track: "Your Good Lovin'" was arranged and produced by Prelude regulars Eric Matthew and Darryl Payne.
  • 2"Gonna Get Over You" reached No. 43 on the French Pop chart.[5]

Epic albums

Joli's Epic debut Attitude (1983),

the Four Tops' "Standing in the Shadows of Love" which featured Gladys Knight's backing group the Pips; the latter was a moderate club success in tandem with the cuts "Girl in the 80s" and "Blue Eyed Technology" but despite a performance by Joli on Solid Gold the single "Girl in the 80s" – written by Jay Ferguson
and Deborah Neal – garnered no evident mainstream interest.

Joli's next Epic release was Witch of Love (1985),

Yamaha Music Festival in 1984 and had won the Grand Prix. The title cut of Witch of Love was a Joli-Vail composition as was the track "What About Me". However, as with Attitude, the choice for single was a Ferguson-Neal composition: the rather quirky "Does He Dance", which again failed at US radio – although it did become a Canadian airplay item – while becoming a moderate club hit boosted by a remix by Shep Pettibone
.

The commercial failure of both of her Epic album releases led to the label dropping Joli, who spent the next ten years with her career focused on performing rather than recording.

1996 and 2000s

In 1996, Joli reunited with

Hot Dance Music/Club Play,[3] when new remixes by Darrin "Spike" Friedman were released on vinyl 12-inch single. There were two separate 12-inch singles released individually, each featuring a different Darrin Friedman remix, along with the other mixes from the CD single divided between the two records. The song became a regional hit in the New York tri-state area, as it was a favorite of DJs such as Jonathan Peters and Junior Vasquez
at their weekly residencies.

The follow-up single "Breakaway" included remixes geared toward the underground clubs. Two different CD singles of "Breakaway" were released, Part 1 and Part 2. Part 1 had the Junior Vasquez and Eddie Baez mixes of "Breakaway," while Part 2 included additional remixes of "Breakaway," including a remix by Andy the Lamboy, as well one of the Darrin Friedman mixes of "Touch" and a previously unreleased Junior Vasquez mix of "Touch." Both "Touch" and "Breakaway" were featured on Joli's first album in 13 years, If You Love Me (1998).

In recent years,[when?] Joli has performed at clubs and private functions primarily in the New York City area: she has appeared multiple times at the annual KTU Disco Ball at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Joli's "Come to Me" is featured in When Ocean Meets Sky

54, depicting the events at Studio 54
in New York.

Discography

Albums

Year Album Peak chart positions Label
US
[3]
US R&B
[3]
1979 France Joli (re-released in 1994 as Come to Me) 26 25
Prelude
1980 Tonight 175
1981 Now!
1983 Attitude Epic
1985 Witch of Love
1989 Greatest Hits UniDisc
1998 If You Love Me Popular
2010 ) Pegasus
"—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory.

Singles

Year Single Peak chart positions Label
FR
[5]
US Hot 100
[3]
US R&B
[3]
US Adult
[7]
US Dance
[3]
1979 "Come to Me" 65 15 36 47 1
Prelude
"Don't Stop Dancing"
"Don't Let Go"
1980 "The Heart to Break the Heart" 3
"Feel Like Dancing"
"This Time" 103
1981 "Gonna Get Over You" 43 2
1982 "Your Good Lovin' " 53
"Can We Fall in Love Again"
1983 "Girl in the 80's" 46 Epic
1984 "Blue Eyed Technology" 61
1985 "Does He Dance" 40
1997 "Touch" 24 Popular
1998 "Breakaway"
"Save Me" Monogram
2012 "Hallelujah" n/a
"—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory.

See also

References

  1. ^ Bush, John. "France Joli Biography, Songs, & Albums". AllMusic. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
  2. ^ .
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "France Joli - Awards". AllMusic. Archived from the original on November 30, 2012. Retrieved July 16, 2022.
  4. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Hot Dance/Disco: 1974–2003. Record Research. p. 138.
  5. ^ a b "InfoDisc : Tout les Titres par Artiste". April 20, 2012. Archived from the original on April 20, 2012. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
  6. ^ "When Ocean Meets Sky (2003)". IMDb.com. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
  7. ^ "France Joli Top Songs / Chart Singles Discography". Music VF. Retrieved July 16, 2022.

External links