Person

Borel-Clerc, Charles

1879-1959

French composer and conductor Charles Clerc began his schooling at a high school in Toulouse, but his family moved to Paris so that Charles could attend the École Centrale to train as an electrical engineer like his father. The paternal plan for Charles changed when an army buddy who taught at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique noted that Charles seemed to have some musical inclination. So young Charles was sent for oboe lessons; he succeeded in gaining entrance to the Conservatoire and won first prize there in classical orchestral music. Plans changed again, however, when Charles decided that songs were what really interested him. He began successfully composing songs under the pen name Charles Borel-Clerc. Félix Mayo was one of the first to sing his songs, but there followed many other famous singers, including Maurice Chevalier. He wrote such legendary songs as “Ah, le petit vin blanc,” and sometimes accompanied them with his Orchestre Symphique Borel-Clerc. His songs have been used in many film soundtracks and have sold over 1,500,000 records.