From '' La Poupee Qui Fait Non ''
Label: Gamma -- AA 1703
Format: Vinyl, 7", Single
Country: Canada
Released: 1981
Tracklist
A La Poupee Qui Fait Non (She's A Doll)
B La Poupee Qui Fait Non (Version Instrumentale)
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"La Poupée qui fait non" (English: "The Doll That Says No") is a 1966 song written by Franck Gérald and originally recorded by the French singer/songwriter Michel Polnareff.
There have been several covers of the song (including The Birds and Saint Etienne in English) but the most known is probably the 1996 cover recording by the French artist Mylène Farmer and the French-born musician Khaled.
The Farmer/Khaled cover was performed during Farmer's 1996 concert tour.
After three live performances, the song was finally released as the first single from Farmer's second live album, Live à Bercy on 29 April 1997, and became a top five hit in Belgium.
Background and live performances
There is a studio version of this duet, but it was never released. This studio version was performed in lip-sync in a single television show, Tip top, broadcast on a French channel and host by Éric Jean-Jean, where Farmer was invited to promote her single "Comme j'ai mal".
Previously, the show proposed to Farmer a list of singers with whom she would sing a song. She chose Khaled and decided to perform a cover of Polnareff's song, "La Poupée qui fait non", and the recording lasted four hours.
Interviewed by the French magazine Instant-Mag, Thierry Rogen, the sound engineer who has participated in the recording, said: "I have participated in the single "La Poupée qui fait non" with Khaled. Laurant [Boutonnat] was absent. The recording was made in the studio Merga in Suresnes in the right mood. It has been very rapid. Mylène [Farmer] and Khaled were together for four hours in total".
Farmer said she chose the song because it was the first song she learned when she was a child, and she loved Michel Polnareff's work. Khaled also said: "This is a common idea, we wanted to sing together. We loved both Polnareff. Personally, I think it's the first song I learned."
The live version, which was released in 1997, was performed only three nights (two in Geneva and the last at Bercy) as a duet on stage during the 1996 tour. This remained the only collaboration between two artists.
The two remixes available on the CD maxi and the promotional vinyl were produced by Mylène Farmer (this is the only time she has participated in remixes of one of her singles), in collaboration with Thierry Rogen. However, these remixes have not been well appreciated by the singer's fans, because almost all the words have disappeared.
When the song was released, Khaled declared that he found Farmer very sympathetic.[8] However, later, he said he had felt used by her, since she put herself forward all the time when they performed the song and were interviewed; according to a 2009 edition of Nouvel Observateur, Khaled qualified this collaboration as a "trap".
Critical reception
The song generally received negative reviews. According to the author Erwan Chuberre, the duo Khaled / Farmer "which blends the sun and the darkness is on the limit of credibility". "The two worlds [of both singers] really failed to merge and this cover is soon forgotten!" Instant-Mag considered as "absurd" the fact that the studio version was never released, and found that the song "was much harmed by the remixes that accompany it, in which we have as the hazy impression that Mylène was amused herself (and without supervision) to press the buttons on the console of Thierry Rogen".
In France, the single debuted at a peak of number six on 3 May 1997. However, like Farmer's previous top ten hits, it dropped rather quickly and fell off the top 50 after eight weeks.
Surprisingly, the song was a big success in Belgium, where it had a better chart trajectory in the Ultratop 40 than in France. It appeared on the chart for a total of 18 weeks from 24 May 1997, peaked at number five on 21 June, and managed to remain for eight weeks in the top ten. The song ranked at number 41 in the End of year chart.
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JOHNNY HALLYDAY - LA POUPEE QUI FAIT NON (Vidéo N°670)by yanjerdu265,247 views
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