Vive les chansons de Kiki! ♪♫♪

In the year of 1957, a lad by the name of Christian Ysaye entered the bright and brazen world; location the Belgian capital, Brussels. What marked this boy out from the rest of the flock was his family musical legacy, his father Jacques Ysaye was an established orchestra conductor, while his grandpa was Eugene Ysaye, famous in his homeland and beyond as a composer and violinist. Obviously some of this talent rubbed off on Christian and so! at the tender age of 8 and a half the newly baptised Kiki embarked upon his musical adventure with his first record in 1965 under the direction of his dad. Employing his pysdeoneum of Jack Say, Jacques wrote, produced and over saw most of his son's records - all though Kiki did have a hand in penning his own songs - natch! This first record in question was the release "C'est Parti Mon Kiki" on the Palette record label. Even at this age Kiki's boundless joie de vivre comes though - singing with a playful maturity beyond his years. On the EP release is the amazing "Vive Les Chansons Yé-Yé" which by its very name could be the theme of the whole genre and was one of the songs written by the man himself. Moving on to 1967 came perhaps Kiki's recording opus with the amazing Bond-inspired "L'Agent Secret" - perhaps one of the finest examples of it's kind! Ok, now to 1968, a bumber year which saw the release of Kiki's last four EPs; “La légende du petit sapin", "Kiki Va Piano" and ‘Kiki à l’opéra." More amazing Yé-yé goodness is thus released to the world! Highlights from these include Les Grenouilles, L'Affreux Jojo and the fuzz/recorder fest of Je Serai Musicien. Along the way these records were also compiled onto not one but too long players! After his final release Christian retreated from the studio to concentrate on his studies - however it wasn't too long before returned, this time as a drummer of the group Blue Rock in 1974 at the age of 17, until 1977. Sadly no further info on Christian is available - but his cousin Marc Ysaye acheived some success as a drummer with the rock group Machiavel - talented family indeed! Now onto what you can hear of this talented youngster - in the ink provided I have compiled the best cuts from each EP, which is practically all of them! Sadly I don't have his last record just yet, but I imangine it's just as great!

♪♫♪ JE SERAI KIKI!!! ♪♫♪

Mark Radice and the Ten Year Old Blues

Jeezo! Sorry (yet again) for abstaining from posting on this dear blog/graveyard/wasteland......but!....I have returned (for now) and with something I hope you will all enjoy. Continuing with child singing sensations comes the complete pre-puberty releases of the very talented Mark Radice. The son of record producer Gene Radice, Mark shone from a very early age in the studio - writing over 50 of his own compositions by the age of 11. His first release came at the age of 10 with Wooden Girl/Save Your Money in 1967, then Natural Morning/You Took the Words Right Out of My Life in 1968, followed by 10,000 Year Old Blues/Three Cheers (For the Sad Man) in the same year. Finally came Richest Man In the World/Girl By The Meter in '69, which was the last single before his self-titled debut album in 1971. In addition to both singing and writing the releases - he also played a part in producing and arranging the records too - nice! After allowing these recordings flow down your ear canals, I'm sure you'll agree with me on what a superb talent Mark was and indeed still is! Mr Radice grew up to become a successful songwriter (including a variety of numbers for Sesame Street - wahey!) and his official site is here for much more information and a full discog. I've also split it into two parts as my connection aint what it used to be!

Mark One!

Mark Two!

The Crown Prince of YéYé Land

One of the smallest but certainly brighter stars of YéYé explosion in France in the early sixties was a young chap by the name of Pascal Krug, or to give his stage name Le Petit Prince. Born in Switzerland on the 3rd February 1952 he had a natural flair for strumming the guitar at an early age and quickly rose attention at an appearance at a national music festival in his home country. At just 11, he was offered a contract with the French record company Barclay by producer Ken Lean. After securing the deal he was approached and went on to be managed the singer Claude François who he went on to later to tour with in 1963 alongside the group Les Gams. 11 singles and two albums later the inevtiable happend, and the small prince had to grow up - still he managed one EP in 1968 after his voice had taken the low road!

The few recordings I have heard of the prince have all been ace, combining good production with Pascal's talented singing voice. And on offer to download is his EP from 1964, Chante Avec Moi with fellow performer Franck Alamo. Francky comments on why he got together with the prince with the wise words "He is nice, spontaneous, sings and adores playing guitar like me!" Chante Avec Moi turns out to be a pretty catchy ditty - however the highlight is definitely the cover of Rag Doll, retitled Triste Noel - very worthy cover! Plus Pascal lends a hand to writing too with S'il Faut Grandir. The EP rounds of with the track Ces Gens-La.

Listen To His Highness Here!

Another round of Cafe Con Leche - please!

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Yo! Due to a couple of requests, here is a updated repost of the kidpoptastic duo of Cafe Con Leche! Updated due to the inclusion of 4 new tracks, which include another single Sing Your Song! Which means the entire output of the group! How amazing is that! While not reaching the phonic heights of Land of Light, the additional numbers do capture that Cafe Con Leche spirit of love, light and happiness, which is pretty groovy!

Included are as follows:

The Bubble Gum Song/Puppy Bobby
The Land of Light/Fly Away
Sing Your Song/Do It Again

Bit of more info on the group. The two members were called Monica Glaysher and Freddy McCoy - both who had fathers who worked in a US Army Base in Spain. Monica's dad was the leader of the choir, while Freddy's was an aviation sargeant. Whats twice as cool is that they both co-wrote some of their songs! Enjoy once more!

☆Pick up your order here!☆

The Bantams - Follow Me

Hey! Just to continue the kid-pop theme here are The Bantams performing 'Follow Me Girl' - great stuff and enought to cheer up any old January day! And once I get their LP (eventually!) you can be assured you'll here it here!

I Know I'm In Love With Chee Chee and Peppy!

Hey! And who's here to give us a warm welcome to the year of 2008? Well it's the fabbest duo to come out of the spangle paradise that was the 70's, Chee Chee and Peppy! - wow that's like 36 years ago! (Man, need to stop watching Countdown....)

Anyway! Just who were Chee Chee and Peppy??? Well after some snooping or the SoufulDetriot forums - here's some background infomation and musings!

Chee Chee (Keith Boilling) was born in 1957 in Frankfort, PA while Peppy (Dorothy Moore) entered into the world in Morristown, PA in 1959. The jury's out on whether they were brother or sister (which would make them a MUCHO cooler Same Difference), but they both got together in 1971 (14 and 12 years old respectively) to eventually record two full albums and few singles to add to the bargain! Apparently they named themselves after their pet dogs, which they reported when they appeared on an recording of the Soul Time music show!

You may have heard "I Know I'm In Love", their most successful single, and hopefully like me admit that it is the upmost A-mazing slice of Bubblegum soul! And so I eventually managed to seek out their first self-titled LP from 1972, for a resonable amount as well - and love it I did! Released on Buddah records, it was masterminded by notable producer Jesse James, with him making up the vast majority of the songwriting credits. Also included are covers of Mocking Bird and This Magic Moment. Of note is the included version of I Know I'm In Love seems to be a slightly different version to the released single, as Chee Chee's voice is a tad deeper (naturally I guess considering it was recorded a year later!) and runs for a slightly shorter frame of time.

After "I Know..." the hits dried up but eventually the two came back to release another album and single on the Branding Iron label, both called Super You.

Ok ok, now here's the place where you can lap up and listen to this gooey-soul masterpiece!!!

Enjoy!!!

I love Chee Chee and Peppy*

A double dose of Café con Leche!

Time to get another fix of bubblegum..., and this time its a total sugar high.... with added fuzz!


Café con Leche were two young American kids who released at least two records in Spain in '72/'73. For what reasons and the amount
of success the record acheived are unknown, but its great that they did! The Spanish speaking world during the 70's and early 80's seemed to have a thing for groups featuring young members, with artists such as La Pandilla, Los Chicos and Parchis garnering massive success in Spain and Latin America, so I guess this is somehow related to the craze!


The first single the band released was The Bubble Gum Song (nana-nana) which absoultely blistering, just like digging into a big knickerblocker glory - makes you very hungry after listening tho'! The next, Land of Light, manages to do one better and becomes a total fuzz fest. This thing is epic!

Anyhow here's the two said tracks!

I Am a Download!