France Joli
is a Canadian singer, born 1963, who is best known for the disco classic "Come to Me."
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FRANCE JOLI TICKETS
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Early life/Teen stardom
A native of
Montreal,
Quebec, Joli grew up in the Montreal suburb of
Dorion.
As early as age 4 she was performing for relatives by lip-synching to
Barbra Streisand records handling a piece of skipping rope like a microphone. By 1974 she'd developed a natural vocal talent of her own along with a personal magnetism: these attributes were evidenced in appearances in television commercials and also Joli's participation in amateur talent shows at one of which - in 1979 - she connected with dance music producer/songwriter Tony Green.
The tracks the fifteen year old Joli cut with Green were picked up by
Prelude and released on April 17 1979 as the album
France Joli
: the track "Come to Me" received a boost when Joli performed it as a last minute replacement for Donna Summer at a concert held on
Fire Island on July 7 1979 whose estimated audience numbered 5000.
"Come to Me" began a three week reign atop the
Billboard
Hot Dance Club Play on 22 September 1979 and the
France Joli
album rose to #26. On the
Billboard Hot 100 "Come to Me" peaked at #15 a symptom of the increasing disenchantment of Pop radio with disco music.
Joli made her network television debut on 26 October 1979 broadcast of the
Midnight Special and she co-hosted the 7 December 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
with the ballad "This Time (I'm Giving All I've Got)" released as a single: 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 #3:
Tonight
was ranked on the Billboard album chart at #175.
Joli's third album
Now
was her first without Tony Green production being courtesy of Ray Reid and William Anderson from
Crown Heights Affair except for one track: "Your Good Lovin'" arranged and produced by Prelude regulars Eric Matthew and Darryl Payne.
Now
yielded another dance club smash with "Gonna Get Over You"
1 but this failed to translate into even a low chart placing for the parent album and Joli left the dance music-oriented Prelude label for the mainstream music giant Epic. Prelude owner Marvin Schlachter would say of Joli: "She was a very beautiful young lady and she had a sort of magnetic appeal, which quite frankly was appealing to everybody, but in a manor [sic] of speaking - the talent was...the people behind her [who] directed her career. When she felt that she wanted to rise above the Disco market and left Prelude to sign with [Epic's owner] Columbia - her career disappeared. Because again, the talent was in the producers and the writers and so on. She again, was an instrument of their creativity."
- 1"Gonna Get Over You" reached #43 on the French Pop charts
Epic albums
Joli's Epic debut
Attitude
(1983) was produced by
Pete Bellotte;
Giorgio Moroder was credited as executive producer. The album personnel included
Martin Page on electric guitar, Page's
Q-Feel sideman Brian Fairweather on electric bass and on electric bass and electric guitar: Zito also performed arranging duties. The tracks included Joli's original "Dumb Blond" (co-written with Daniel Vail) and a remake of
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) produced by
George Duke: prior to the album's release Joli had performed the Duke-penned track "Party Lights" at the
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".
Witch of Love
featured probably the two tracks Joli ever recorded that had the strongest credentials in terms of songwriters:
Billy Steinberg and
Tom Kelly contributed "In the Darkness" while "Love Always Finds a Way" was courtesy of
Tom Snow and
Cynthia Weil. 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 -
In 1996, Joli reunited with Tony Green for the single
Touch
on Popular Records. The original incarnation of the single was a CD single with
eurodance/
hi-nrg styled remixes intended for radio but received limited airplay. The song belatedly became a hit in clubs, reaching #24 on
Hot Dance Music/Club Play, when new remixes by Darrin "Spike" Friedman were released on vinyl 12" single. There were two separate 12" 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): as the Popular label had folded
Koch Records released the album.
A reported hookup in the 2000's between Joli and
Lewis Martineé evidently did not happen.
In recent years, Joli has performed at clubs and private functions primarily in the New York City area: she's appeared multiple times at the annual
KTU Disco Ball at
Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, NJ.
Joli has dated New York disc jockey Joe Causi - no official word on whether or not she is working on new material.
- Joli's "Come to Me" is featured in When Ocean Meets Sky
[1] (2003), a documentary detailing the 50-year history of the Fire Island Pines community. The film - which had its television premiere on June 10, 2006 - includes much previously unseen archival footage, but unfortunately Joli's electrifying July 1979 performance of "Come to Me" is presented only in still photographs with musical background, suggesting no footage of that renowned event exists. The sequence includes interviews with those who recall Joli's 1979 performance on Fire Island. When Ocean Meets Sky
is seen occasionally on the Logo channel.
Albums
- Come to Me
1979 Prelude Records
- Tonight
1980 Prelude Records
- Now!
1981 Prelude Records
- Attitude
1983 Epic Records
- Witch of Love
1985 Epic Records
- If You Love Me
1998 Popular Records
Singles
- "Come to Me"
- "Don't Let Go"
- "Don't Stop Dancing"
- "The Heart to Break the Heart"
- "Feel Like Dancing"
- "You're Good Lovin'"
- "Gonna Get Over You"
- "Girl in the '80's"
- "Blue Eyed Technology"
- "Does He Dance"
- "Touch"
- "Breakaway"
- "Save Me"
See also
- List of number-one dance hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
References
- ''When Ocean Meets Sky''