In May 1964 the Searchers stayed in France and performed at the famous Olympia.

As they were rather successful Vogue asked them to record some of their tracks in

French. The Searchers agreed and sang French vocals to the backing tracks - produced

for the originals. In France eps (so called Super 45 Tours)were common, two track

singles ( 45 Tours Simples) were only made for music boxes.

The ep didn’t sell well, so not too many copies were made. This makes their French ep

one of their rarest records ever - hard to find and very expensive.

Back in 1964

 

The tracks and the leadsingers of this Vogue ep: PNV 24121, release date 05/1964

 

C’est Arrive Comme Ca = Don’t Throw Your Love Away (Mike with Chris)

C’est De Notre Age = Sugar And Spice (Tony with Mike)

Mais C’etait Un Reve = It’s All Been A Dream (Mike)

Ils La Chantaient Il Y A Longtemps = Saints And Searchers (Chris)

 

What is different to their English sung originals?

 

It’s All Been… is sung by Tony - the French version by Mike.

Saints And Searchers is also sung by Tony - in French it is done by Chris.

 

For Ils La Chantaient Il Y A Longtemps the stereo version of the English original

was used - but only one channel with the result that Mike’s leadguitar is hardly to be

heard.

 

C’est Arrive Comme Ca and C’est De Notre Age found their way on a 45 Tours Simples :

Vogue PV 15191, a copy of that single is below:

The French recordings were unavailable until 1990 when the German rerelease label Repertoire issued something very interesting: The German, French and Rare Recordings that included all four tracks + German sung songs, Liberty recordings, the Chris Curtis single and other rare stuff. Cover see below. The EP Collection Vol. 2 on See For Miles Records brought the French songs in 1996.

 

 

Both cds are unavailalble today - what made their French songs rarities again, at least for a while.

 

"Mais C'Etait Une Reve" appears on the re-mastered "Meet The Searchers" CD ( "C'est De Notre Age" and "Ils La Chantaient Il Y A Longtemps" appear on the re-mastered "Sugar And Spice" CD "C'Est Arrive Comme Ca" appears on the re-mastered "It's The Searchers" CD ( All the cds were released in 2001 and are still available.

The Searchers never made it really big in France, they charted only twice with Needles and

Goodbye My Love and I don’t think they play there much these days - if at all..

 

Finally, here’s the translation of the French titles into English (done by a German)

 

C'est arrive comme ca * It has happened just like that (Don’t Throw Your Love Away)
C'est de notre age * It’s normal for people of our age (Sugar And Spice)
Mais c'etait un réve * But it was a dream (It’s All Been A Dream)
Ils la chantaient il y a longstemps * They sang it a long time ago (Saints And Searchers)

 

(Thanks to Raoul & Tim)