Paul Mauriat

Classically trained from childhood, French composer and conductor Paul Mauriat ultimately chose a path in popular music. His initial breakthrough occurred in 1962 as co-writer of the European success “Chariot.” English lyrics supplied the following year transformed the piece into “I Will Follow Him,” which topped the American charts for Little Peggy March. Mauriat remains most widely recognized for his 1968 global phenomenon “Love Is Blue.”

Every ancestor in Mauriat’s family had been a classical musician, and he intended to continue that lineage by beginning studies at age ten at the Conservatoire in Paris. During adolescence he developed a passion for jazz and contemporary styles that diverted him from his original course. At seventeen he assembled his own orchestra and embarked on tours of European concert halls. Those performances attracted the notice of vocalist and songwriter Charles Aznavour, who engaged Mauriat as arranger and conductor. Through Aznavour he soon collaborated with additional French performers, concentrating chiefly on arranging duties for other artists throughout the remainder of the 1940s and the 1950s.

Mauriat launched his solo career in the early 1960s with a sequence of instrumental albums marked by expansive melodic strings and understated yet persistent modern rhythms. Under the pseudonym Del Roma he co-wrote “Chariot,” a 1962 hit for Petula Clark. Arthur Altman and Norman Gimbel supplied fresh English words the next year, enabling Little Peggy March’s recording of “I Will Follow Him” to reach number one in the United States.

Mauriat persisted with pop instrumental releases across the 1960s, their audience expanding steadily. Popularity crested in 1968 when his interpretation of “L’Amour Est Bleu” (Love Is Blue)—Luxembourg’s entry in the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest—achieved international success, including a number-one position on U.S. charts. The single was paired with Blooming Hits, a collection of 1960s pop material whose worldwide sales surpassed two million copies. As an international recording artist he toured North and Latin America, Europe, and Japan while appearing on television in multiple countries.

Although Mauriat’s commercial standing softened in the early 1970s—he registered only two additional, modest U.S. singles, “Love in Every Room” and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”—he maintained solid sales worldwide, especially throughout Europe. After the 1980s his Western releases tapered as audiences there declined, yet he retained a devoted following in the Far East. Concert visits to Russia, China, and Japan extended until his final live performance in Osaka in 1998. Former lead pianist Gilles Gambus assumed leadership of the orchestra in 1999, followed in 2005 by French horn player Jean-Jacques Justafre. Mauriat died on November 3, 2006, in the southern French city of Perpignan.