Les Poppys

Formed as a French pop ensemble of seventeen boys drawn from a children's choir, Les Poppys entered the studio for the first time in 1970 and stayed active through most of the decade that followed. The roots of the act trace back to 1946, when Les Petits Chanteurs d'Asnières was established in Asnières, France; two and a half decades later, Barclay Records selected seventeen members from that choir, placed them under contract, and rechristened the unit Les Poppys. Their bow on disc arrived the same year with the seasonal release "Noël 70," whose flip side carried the antiwar number "Non, Je Ne Veux Pas Faire la Guerre." The 1971 follow-up "Non, Non, Rien N'a Changé" also became a hit and opened the door to a steady run of singles that included "Des Chansons Pop" and "Halleluia Maman" (both 1971); "Credo in Unum Deum," "Jesus Revolution," "La Vie C'est Si Joli," and "Septembre Noir, Decembre Blanc" (all 1972); "An American Trilogy," "Papa, Pense à Nous," "Tu Est du Bluff," and "Western Story" (all 1973); "Avanti Bugatti," "Glory Alleluia," "Il Faut une Fleur Pour Faire le Monde," and "Noël 74" (all 1974); plus "Duguesclin" (1977). Full-length albums appeared alongside these 45s, among them Poppys (1971), Album 2 (1972), Western Story (1973), and Les Poppys Chantent Walt Disney (1977). Sales and interest waned year after year until Barclay ended its relationship with the group in 1978. A final flash of commercial success arrived in 1980 when Les Poppys joined Dutch singer/songwriter Lennie Kuhr for the hit single "Visite," which climbed to number two on the Dutch singles chart, after which the act settled into nostalgia performances. Later collections such as Master Série (1994) and Les Années Barclay (1995) gathered highlights from the Barclay years of the 1970s.