THE ENGINE ROOM

The unsung heroes who helped forge modern music

- Words: Jeremy Allen

The name Jean-Claude Vannier may not be instantly familiar to you, but check the credits of your French LPs - or the good ones, at least - and there's a chance he was involved. Vannier is a pianist and arranger par excellence, with a preternatural gift for majestic string arrangements that swoop and stir. He arranged and co-wrote Serge Gainsbourg's 1971 chef-d'oeuvre, Histoire de Melody Nelson, while contributing to large swathes of the music on Gainsbourg's soundtracks from the late 60s such as Les Chemins De Katmandou and Paris N'Existe Pas (check out Vannier's remarkable La Horse as a taster).

While he might be best known in Britain for his work with the French singer, their working relationship came to an abrupt end in 1972, though there was never a shortage of artists queuing up to get a sprinkling of his genius on their records. Vannier's credits include - and this is by no means a comprehensive list - Johnny Hallyday, Michel Polnareff, Jane Birkin, Françoise Hardy, France Gall and Claude François, aka CloClo, France's biggest star of the 70s who met with a sticky end changing a lightbulb in the bath. Ask him about CloClo, though, and he's characteristically indifferent: “I recorded two tracks for Claude François in London in May '68 but I didn't continue because I didn't get on with him very well.”

When this writer asks JVC what he'd like to be remembered for aside from his scintillating work with Serge, he says he's not concerned with legacy: “I don’t really care if I'm remembered. It’s not certain that my music will hang around the streets for much longer, as Charles Trenet would say.”

Here, he appears to be quoting Trenet's