Françoise Hardy auditioned for Vogue Records at 18 and went on to top charts with her very first release, a 1962 self-titled record now known as “Tous Les Garcons Et Les Filles” based on its hit song. From there, the infamously timid Hardy became one of the few French pop stars of the era to cross over, jetting from England to France to record, serving as a muse to designers like Yves Saint Laurent, and inspiring Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger. That debut showcases Hardy at her simplest, wringing rockabilly-tinged pop magic from modest jazz percussion and steel guitar. Hardy wrote most of her own material, setting her far apart from her peers, and on her debut she penned every song but two. Her lyrics would never be this close to yé-yé traditions again.

Presented here is Francoise Hardy's debut studio album released in France in December 1962 by Disques Vogue.

Originally issued with no title, except for her name on the cover, the album became colloquially known by the title of its most successful song, Tous les garcons et les filles.

This sensational album compiles the twelve original French versions from her first three EPs. Hardy would also record ten versions of the songs in Italian, English and German. Four of the Italian versions are included here as bonus tracks.

This iconic LP combines rockabilly, folk, jazz and blues, and has been noted for its simplicity, featuring a minimalist jazz percussion, bass, acoustic and electric guitar sound palette.

TRACK LISTING

Tous Les Garcons Et Les Filles
Ca A Rate
La Fille Avec Toi
Oh Oh Cheri
Il Est Tout Pour Moi
J'ai Jete Mon Coeur
Quelli Della Mia Eta
L'eta Dell'amore
Oh Oh Cheri
Le Temps De L'amour
On Se Plait
Ton Meilleur Ami
Il Est Parti Un Jour
J'suis D'accord
C'est A L'amour Auquel Je Pense
Ci Sto
E All'amore Che Penso 
Il Tuo Migliore Amico
Una Ragazza Come Le Altre

It's 1973 and French music, fashion and style icon Francoise Hardy is going through some changes. Expecting a child and in a state of transition, she changes label and joins WEA in search of new blood and new songwriters for her latest LP. Setting her heart on Michel Berger, the two hit the studio together and their collaboration soon results in a cult album, an instant classic in French music and an enduring part of chanson history, "Message Personnel". One of Hardy's most celebrated LPs, this collaboration with Michel Berger sees the vocalist abandon the carefree Ye-Ye of her youth to concentrate on sweeping ballads packed with emotional impact. Sumptuous and sincere, "Message Personnel" has influenced generations of French songwriters, not least the likes of Air and Tellier.

* Exclusive interview with Françoise Hardy
* Liner Notes by Kieron Tyler
* First time available in the US
* 180-gram vinyl housed in a deluxe Stoughton jacket

Between 1963 and 1966, Françoise Hardy released one French-language album per year. Each, strictly speaking, was eponymously titled, and each was collected from a series of contemporary four-track, seven-inch, picture-sleeve EPs - pop music’s main format in France, known as le super 45. In them, we see the maturing of one of the decade’s most singular talents - a pop singer with the heart of a chanteuse, a singer-songwriter in an age before such a thing was known, and a style icon who valued privacy and modesty. Remastered from the original tapes, we present the first five Françoise Hardy albums in their original French format, on deluxe LP and CD.

Like her 1962 debut, the cover of the following year’s 'Le Premier Bonheur Du Jour' had Hardy staring enigmatically at the listener. On the album itself, the sound had changed in line with Hardy’s solidifying vision and voice; where 'Tous Les Garçons Et Les Filles' was produced by a series of collaborators who struggled to understand her style, 'Le Premier Bonheur Du Jour' gave fans the most significant insight so far into the identity of Françoise Hardy.

In 1963, at a time when Serge Gainsbourg was tentatively dipping a toe into pop and the term yé-yé was only just being coined, Hardy was a rare thing: a singer-songwriter with heaps of her own material but not a folk singer in any sense. Hers was pop music that took the weight of chanson on its shoulders. Here, "Comme Tant D’Autres” says, “I know well that life is short, and I’ve been around” - hardly “She loves you, yeah yeah yeah.”

For the tracks on 'Le Premier Bonheur Du Jour', Hardy was produced by arranger Marcel Hendrix. As well as her own compositions, “L’Amour D’Un Garçon” saw Hardy adapt Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s "The Love Of A Boy.” In a contemporary interview, she said she would not perform songs where there was no sense of the words touching her intimately. “A song - it is your own story, or it is nothing,” she said.

It was another year before Hardy’s records were issued in Britain and another year before she started to brush up against the likes of Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and The Stones, but life was changing for the 19-year-old.

Her unique sound would take her far, despite admitting now that she “had no ambition. At the beginning, my ambition was to record something. I thought anything outside France was an impossible dream, but I did what I could to make it come true. It was like a current that carried me.”