F. R. David | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Elli Robert Fitoussi |
Also known as | Robert Fitoussi |
Born | Ferryville, French Tunisia | 1 January 1947
Origin | Paris, France |
Genres | |
Occupation(s) |
|
Instrument(s) |
|
Years active | 1963–present |
Labels | |
Website | www |
Elli Robert Fitoussi [1] (born 1 January 1947), [1] better known as F. R. David, is a French musician. He is best known for his 1982 hit single "Words". [1]
Elli Robert Fitoussi was born to a Tunisian Jewish family. He was born and grew up in Menzel Bourguiba, formerly known as Ferryville, which was then part of the French protectorate of Tunisia. [1] [2]
In Paris, he began his music career as Robert Fitoussi. [1] He first performed with French garage band Les Trèfles. [1] After one EP, they expanded and were renamed Les Boots, but achieved very little commercial success. Adopting his new stage name - in which the initials F.R. referred to the first letters of the artist’s real name and surname, and “David” - to the myth of David and Goliath - he went solo in 1967 and recorded some orchestral psychedelic pop with Michel Colombier, including a version of the Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever" ("Il Est Plus Facile"). He enjoyed minor hits with the Éric Charden penned "Symphonie" and a cover of the Bee Gees' "Sir Geoffrey Saved the World", but this success did not last. He then created Aztec Records with Sonopress & Carrer and started working with Michael Haubrich, where they wrote and produced for several small groups. The first was called Cockpit, followed by David Cast, Doc & Prohibition Group, Ragga, Alain Maria, Freddy Meyer, and DD Daughterdydawn with Vangelis Papathanassiou.[ citation needed ]
During the early 1970s, F.R.David formed the progressive rock group David Explosion, [3] but their one album was not a success. He was a guitarist for Vangelis in the early 1970s. [1] With Vangelis, he also appeared as vocalist on some of his early 1970s albums. David's voice is also heard on the 1974 single "Who" by Vangelis under the name 'Odyssey'. David then joined French rock band Les Variations, [4] appearing on their final album Café De Paris (1975), which featured an early rock-disco crossover "Superman, Superman". When the band broke up, he went solo again. His personal "trademarks" are his sunglasses and his guitar (a white Fender Stratocaster).[ citation needed ]
His most recognised song was his hit song "Words", which sold eight million records worldwide and topped various charts throughout Europe in late 1982. The song reached No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart in spring 1983, surpassing a rival version by 1960s hitmakers the Tremeloes, and went on to become the 22nd best-selling single in the UK during 1983. The song appears in the Oscar-nominated film for Best Picture, Call Me by Your Name . The song is a catchy, slightly melancholy ballad led by synths and sung in a slender, high-pitched voice.
During the 1990s, F.R.David focused on writing and composing for other well known artists. He released another album, Words – '99 Version in 2000 which contains mostly covers. In 2006, the album The Wheel - the track list of which was opened and closed by two new remixes of the song "Words" - was released.
In 2009, F.R.David released the album Numbers, which was recorded in collaboration with other musicians and featured songs that Robert himself most preferred. [5] Between 2010 and 2011, he went on a national French tour of 52 concerts. In 2013, F.R.David released an album "Midnight drive".
Elli Fitoussi is married, has two grown up children and one grand-child. He currently shares his time between his studio in Paris, France and his summer residence in Valencia, Spain.
Title | Year | Peak positions | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
GER | UK [6] | |||
Words | 1982 | 13 | 46 | |
Long Distance Flight | 1984 | — | — | |
Reflections | 1987 | — | — | |
Voices of the Blue Planet (with Yoann Marine) | 1998 | — | — | |
Words – '99 Version | 1999 | — | — | |
The Wheel | 2006 | — | — | |
Numbers | 2008 | — | — | |
Midnight Drive | 2013 | — | — | |
"—" denotes releases that did not chart. |
Title | Year | Peak positions | Album | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FRA | AUS | AUT [7] | GER [8] | UK [6] | US [9] | SWI [10] | ||||||||
"Black Jack" | 1981 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | (Single only) | |||||
"Words" | 1982 | 2 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 62 | 1 | Words | |||||
"Pick Up the Phone" | 1983 | — | — | — | 26 | — | — | — | ||||||
"Music" | — | — | — | — | 71 | — | — | |||||||
"I Need You" | — | — | — | 33 | — | — | — | (Single only) | ||||||
"Play a Little Game" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
"Gotta Get a Move On" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
"Sand Dunes" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
"Long Distance Flight" | 1984 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Long Distance Flight | |||||
"This Time I Have to Win" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
"Dream Away" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
"Sahara Night" | 1986 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Reflections | |||||
"Sun" | 1987 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
"Don't Go" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
"Words" (1989 remix) | 1989 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | (Single only) | |||||
"I'll Try to Love Again" | 1992 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
"Words (Single & Extended Version)" | 2012 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
"Your Love Shines" | 2018 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
"Paris Is Her Home" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
"Words (Red Bus Remix)" | 2019 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
"Time Is Not Mine" | 2022 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
"Words (Sped Up 10 %)" | 2023 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
"—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. |
Claude Honoré M'Barali, professionally known as MC Solaar, is a French rapper of Senegalese and Chadian origin. He is one of France's most famous and influential hip hop artists. Some consider him the best French rapper of all time.
Aphrodite's Child was a Greek rock and pop band formed in 1967, by Evangelos Papathanassiou, later known professionally as Vangelis,, Demis Roussos, Loukas Sideras, and Silver Koulouris (guitar). They initially found success in Europe with hit singles like "Rain and Tears", "End of the World", "I Want to Live", and "It's Five O'Clock", before pivoting to progressive rock with their third and final album, 666 (1972). An ambitious concept album inspired by the Book of Revelation, it later gained critical acclaim and has appeared on a number of lists of the top progressive and psychedelic albums of all time.
3T is an American R&B/pop music trio featuring the three sons of Tito Jackson and Delores "Dee Dee" Jackson, from whom they inherit their Dominican ancestry. The band members include, from eldest, Tariano Adaryll Jackson II ("Taj"), Taryll Adren Jackson and Tito Joe Jackson ("TJ"). Their late uncle Michael Jackson mentored the trio, and signed them to his label MJJ Music.
Étienne Daho is a French singer-songwriter. He has released a number of synth-driven and rock-surf influenced pop hit singles since 1981.
Earth is the first official solo album by the Greek artist Vangelis, released in 1973. In contrast to Heaven and Hell (1975) and some soundtracks by Vangelis from this period, Earth was not released on compact disc in the 1980s — it was not until 1996 that a CD version was made available, and then only in Greece.
Cassius was a French musical duo active from 1988 to 2019 and consisting of producers Philippe Cerboneschi and Hubert Blanc-Francard, better known as Zdar and Boombass. Under its different incarnations the duo is likened to the "French touch" movement of electronic music in the second half of the 1990s.
Pierre David Guetta is a French DJ and record producer. He has sold over 10 million albums and 65 million singles globally, with more than 14 billion streams. Guetta was voted the number one DJ in the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs polls in 2011, and throughout 2020 until 2023. In 2013, Billboard ranked his song "When Love Takes Over" as the number one dance-pop collaboration of all time.
Patrick Juvet was a Swiss model and singer-songwriter, who had a string of hit records in Europe. While his early career was focused on making pop records, he found international success as a disco music performer in the latter half of the 1970s. His biggest hit, "I Love America", made the top twenty in France, Sweden and the UK, and the top ten in the US disco chart.
Jean-Christophe Le Saoût, better known by the stage name Wax Tailor, is a French record producer, DJ, and talent manager. He has released six studio albums collaborating with other artists.
Ärsenik is a rap group based in Villiers-le-Bel, France, founded in 1992, and made up of two brothers, Lino and Calbo, whose family is originally from Congo.
"Words" is a song by F. R. David, released as a single in 1982 from his debut album of the same name. The song was a huge European hit, peaking at number one in West Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Belgium, and Norway. In early 1983, it peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, and it also went to number one in South Africa in late 1982, spending 25 weeks on the charts, eventually becoming the most successful hit on that country's year-end chart. In Australia, the single peaked at number 12 and spent 41 weeks within the top 100 in two chart runs throughout 1983 and early 1984.
Reserection is an extended play (EP) by English alternative dance band Saint Etienne and French singer Étienne Daho, under the collective name St. Etienne Daho. It was released on 29 September 1995 by Virgin Records.
Les Variations was a French rock band from the late 1960s to mid-1970s, that sang mostly in English and was known for its rock guitar-based music. Its three members were born in Morocco and were of Jewish origin. They were France's first band to headline the famed Olympia Theatre, the first to tour America, the first to sign with a US label and the first to achieve hit records in America. On their last two albums, Moroccan Roll (1974) and Cafe de Paris (1975), their compositions, arrangements and lyrics contained sounds and stories of North African and Jewish Sephardic culture as well as the Hebrew songs of the band members’ youth growing up in North Africa. With this sound, they introduced a new rock fusion which is now referred to as Moroccanroll music, which is played throughout North Africa and has influenced many western rock bands over the decades that followed.
Vangelis was a Greek musician, composer, and producer. He began his music career in the 1960s with the Greek progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child and in the 1970s began composing electronic music. He gained wide mainstream popularity after composing soundtracks to film Chariots of Fire (1981) and Blade Runner (1982). His solo career discography consists of 23 studio albums, 26 compilation albums, 12 soundtrack albums, and roughly 29 singles. The majority of his film, documentary, theatre, and ballet & dance scores weren't released or officially released. He also collaborated with Jon Anderson and as a duo Jon and Vangelis released 4 studio albums, 2 compilations, and 13 singles, and with Irene Papas released two studio albums.
Aurélien Cotentin, better known by his stage name Orelsan, is a French rapper, songwriter, record producer, actor and film director. He has released four studio albums: his debut Perdu d'avance on 16 February 2009, his second album Le chant des sirènes on 26 September 2011, his third album La fête est finie on 20 October 2017 and his fourth album Civilisation on 19 November 2021.
Words is the debut studio album by French singer F. R. David. Its title track, "Words", was a commercial success in Europe, reaching number one in ten countries across the continent, as well as peaking at No. 2 in the United Kingdom, France and Netherlands.
Tal Benyezri, also mononymously known as TAL, is an Israeli-French singer. She was signed to Warner Music France from 2011 to 2018. In 2021, she changed her artist name to TALOULA and became an independent artist.
I'll Find My Way Home is a song written by Jon Anderson and Vangelis for the Jon and Vangelis' 1981 album The Friends of Mr Cairo. The single was released in late November 1981, reaching the top ten in several European countries including the UK Singles Chart.
Héloïse Adélaïde Letissier, known professionally as Christine and the Queens and Redcar, or occasionally simply Chris, is a French singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Nantes, he started learning piano at the age of four and found inspiration in one of London's clubs while studying. Letissier released a series of extended plays (EPs) throughout 2011–2013.
Kendji "Girac" Jason Maillié, also known mononymously as Kendji, is a French singer. He is the winner of season 3 of the music competition The Voice: la plus belle voix as part of Team Mika. He has released five studio albums, Kendji,Ensemble, Amigo, Mi Vida, and L'école de la vie, as well as a string of hit singles.