Jacques Dutronc

Jacques Dutronc surfaced from the Parisian garage rock milieu of the early 1960s. He secured initial recognition by composing material for his eventual spouse Françoise Hardy before imprinting his own identity on French rock & roll during the decade’s later years. Intelligent, provocative songwriting and a defiant attitude carried him to prominence through successes such as “Et moi, et moi, et moi,” “Les play boys,” and the 1968 single “Il est cinq heures, Paris s’éveille,” a French pop staple frequently hailed as his defining work. He directed most of the 1970s toward an equally prosperous screen career, then resumed recording with the 1980 album Guerre et pets, co-authored with Serge Gainsbourg. A César Award for his 1991 depiction of Vincent Van Gogh signaled a career high point in acting, while two notable musical returns followed: the 1995 release Brèves rencontres and the widely praised 2003 album Madame l’existence. In 2022 he launched an extensive co-headlining tour with his son, singer/songwriter Thomas Dutronc, which produced the collaborative studio album Dutronc & Dutronc.

Born April 28, 1943, in Paris, France, Jacques Dutronc assembled his first rock band, El Toro et les Cyclones, in 1960. A pair of singles on the Disques Vogue label met with scant response, after which the emerging vocalist entered military service. Following his discharge in 1963, he briefly served as guitarist in Eddy Mitchell’s band before joining his former label as a staff songwriter. There he was teamed with Jacques Lanzmann, who became Dutronc’s principal songwriting collaborator for the greater part of his career. Among the performers for whom he wrote was the already established pop star and Vogue labelmate Françoise Hardy. Dutronc began his solo career in 1966 with the number-two hit “Et moi, et moi, et moi.” His gritty, R&B-inflected rock tracks concealed sharp, playful wit, and he soon accumulated further successes, among them “Les play boys,” which, like his self-titled debut album, reached the top of the French charts. Over the next several years Dutronc ranked among France’s most commercially dominant artists, scoring a succession of hits that included “J’aime les filles” and the enduring “Il est cinq heures, Paris s’éveille,” both of which attained the number-one position. By then he had begun a relationship with Hardy, forming one of the era’s notable power couples.

After five successful albums, Dutronc appeared in the 1973 film Antoine et Sébastien, effectively opening the next phase of his career. Apart from 1975’s Jacques Dutronc 75, he devoted the remainder of the decade to acting, earning critical praise and a César nomination for his 1977 role in Mado. He and Hardy, who had lived together since the early 1970s and welcomed a son, Thomas, married in 1981.

Entering the 1980s, Dutronc chose to revive his music career and reentered the studio with Serge Gainsbourg as primary co-writer. Remaining provocative, the resulting album Guerre et pets achieved modest sales, partly limited by the lead single “L’hymne à l’amour,” which listed racial epithets. The 1982 follow-up C’est pas du bronze fared still worse, though his film work stayed commercially viable. His starring turn in director Maurice Pialat’s Van Gogh biopic drew widespread acclaim and brought Dutronc a César Award for Best Actor. A subsequent series of comeback concerts, preserved on film and disc as Dutronc au Casino, restored some visibility to his musical output ahead of the 1995 album Brèves rencontres. That record featured a collaboration with his son Thomas Dutronc, who soon launched his own successful career as a jazz-pop singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Meanwhile the elder Dutronc continued in film, receiving praise for his role in 2000’s Merci pour le Chocolat and starring in 2002’s Summer Things. His 2003 album Madame l’existence was regarded as a partial return to form, and by decade’s end he had resumed touring. After a 2014 run of shows with fellow French pop veterans Eddy Mitchell and Johnny Hallyday, Dutronc remained relatively inactive for several years. In 2022 he joined his son Thomas for a rare father-and-son tour whose set list celebrated music from each of their careers. The tour preceded the release of Dutronc & Dutronc, a retrospective studio-style album containing new duo recordings of highlights from their respective catalogs.