Guy Marchand died on December 15 under the light of the Provence sky, after having lived several lives. Musician singer actor, boxer, car racer, and polo player, he regularly moved from one activity to another while ensuring, with the utmost seriousness, that nothing was important to him. “I go through the films like an old Englishwoman visiting India,” he assured, referring to the character of detective Nestor Burma, whom he played in 21 television films that became audience successes.
Behind a sense of derision that became his trademark, he hid an enormous amount of work. “When, as a child, I cleaned the workshop of Dad, who was then a mechanic, he said to me: “If you have to do it, do it well,” he explained. I remained faithful to his motto. He owes his discovery of music to his father. Before repairing cars, he was a manager in Bobino, where he regularly took his son. This is how, from his very young years, Guy discovered rock and roll and jazz. Django Reinhardt, whose records he listens to over and over, becomes his idol.
Also read Destiny, La Passionata, Moi je suis Tango… A look back at the cult songs of Guy Marchand
After learning to play the piano and clarinet, he founded an amateur orchestra at the Lycée Voltaire with Jean-Pierre Kalfon on trombone and Jean-Jacques Debout on saxophone. He gives a few concerts which is regularly attended by another of his childhood friends, Claude Moine, the future Eddy Mitchell. On the eve of his 20th birthday, he began performing in jazz clubs where he stood out by imitating Elvis Presley and Sidney Bechet to perfection.
At the time of military service, in the middle of the Algerian War, this adventurer at heart became a paratrooper officer, then signed a three-year commitment to the Foreign Legion. Between two missions, he is one of the technical advisors for the film The Longest Day and shoots a scene which will be cut during editing. He was then assigned to the Bo-Saâda fort, in the south of the country. There is not much to do and, to keep himself busy, he writes and composes a song inspired by Arabic melodies that he likes. This is how La Passionata was born, which he always presented as “a cry of derision in the midst of the absurdity that surrounded it”. For fun, he hums these verses in front of friends who encourage him to suggest them to Eddie Barclay. He takes up the challenge without imagining for a single moment that it will interest a producer. To his great surprise, he almost immediately signed a contract and recorded a 45 rpm which, in a few weeks, sold several hundred thousand copies.
The yé-yé immediately adopt it as confirmed by this sequence from Albert Raisner’s show, Tête de bois, tendres ans, which Madelen invites you to discover or rediscover. Henri Salvador, whom he considers another of his masters, is discreetly associated. The enthusiasm is such that one evening, in Toulouse, he meets El Cordobès, the king of the toreadors, who asks him to sing a cappella, just for him, verses of which he is an unconditional fan.
Now classified in the category of crooners, Guy Marchand will once again triumph in the charts, 17 years later, with Destinée, which became the soundtrack to two cult films, The Under-Gifted on Vacation and Santa Claus is a Garbage . He then assures that this title, which he does not particularly like, will remain his main contribution to our cultural heritage. There were others, in particular, in the world of jazz, through duets with Claude Bolling and in the cinema, in around sixty films, where he played many supporting roles. One of them in Garde à vue, directed by Claude Miller, was rewarded in 1982 with a César for best actor. The consecration for the one who claimed to have been a bad student by not following a career plan, but playing hooky in his own way.
