Biography
Georges Chelon, a French singer and songwriter, first attracted substantial notice upon arriving in the mid-1960s, and although his path later included periods of both progress and reversal he kept recording well into subsequent decades. He was born on January 4, 1943, in Marseilles, France. His first release appeared in 1965 when EMI Pathé Marconi issued the 45 rpm single “15, 20 et Plus,” with the album Père Prodigue following later the same year. From 1965 through 1971 he placed a new full-length recording on the label each year while also issuing a consistent flow of 45 rpm singles; the albums from that stretch were 15, 20 et Plus (1966), Bobino 67 (1967), Tu Sais (1968), Sampa (1968), Chelon 1969 (1969), Vengeance (1970), and Olympia 71 (1971). He then joined Barclay, where new albums arrived less often and met with smaller returns, and he adjusted his approach to suit changing tastes. The Barclay releases were Ouvrez les Portes de la Vie (1973), Si Demain (1975), Commencer à Revivre (1977), Tous les Deux...Comme Hier (1979), and Orange et Citron (1982). During the 1980s Chelon’s audience shrank and his sales prospects grew uncertain. After leaving Barclay he returned once to EMI Pathé Marconi for Poète en l’An 2000 (1983), produced the self-titled collection Georges Chelon (1987) that revisited his best-known songs, and settled at EPM Musique, where he made his first appearance with L’Enfant du Liban in 1989. He stayed with EPM Musique for the remainder of the century and beyond, issuing albums at a steady pace that included the multi-volume series Charles Baudelaire: Les Fleurs du Mal, which began in 2004. Around the same time a broad compilation of his late-1960s EMI Pathé Marconi material, Suppose Que (2004), also appeared.
Albums
