Patachou

Henriette Ragon 10 June 1918 30 April 2015 better known as Patachou was a French singer and actress She was an Officier of the Légion dhonneur Born in the 12th arrondissement of Paris Henriette Ragon began her working life as a typist then a factory worker a shoeseller and an antique dealer In 1948 with her husband Jean Billon she took over a cabaretrestaurant in Montmartre called Patachou Their son Pierre Billon had some success as a singer in the 1970s and wrote Jai oublié de vivre for Johnny Hallyday She began to sing in the bistro and journalists began to call her Patachou after the name of her cabaret pâteàchoux means cream puff dough Georges Brassens sang there and together they sang the duet Maman papa She was the first to interpret other songs he composed such as Le bricoleur La chasse aux papillons etc The evening she sang them for the first time she suggested her audience stay to the end of the show and meet the writer of these songs and Brassens went up on to the Patachou stage for the first time and sang Le Gorille and Pde toi Sometimes she would collect halfties she would snip the neckties of customers reluctant to join in the singing and immediately staple them to the ceiling a habit which has created a very original decor of the place hundreds of neckties hanging above Thomas Dewey and Errol Flynn were among her victims Her first records were released in 1952 She appeared at the Bobino a Montparnasse musichall toured in France and then further afield From 1953 onwards she could be seen onstage at the Palladium the Waldorf Astoria and Carnegie Hall and throughout the United States From the beginning of the 1970s she toured Japan and Sweden where Leternal Parigot with her cheeky Parisian register was popular Patachou was made Officier of the Légion dhonneur on 1 January 2009 Patachou died on 30 April 2015 at the age of 96 Source Article Patachou from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30