Regarde Moi

Born in Strasbourg in 1945, French crooner Herbert Léonard started his career as guitarist in Les Lionceaux in the mid-'60s before he decided to go it alone following two years of military service. He found fame with French-language versions of Gene Pitney's "Something's Got a Hold of My Heart" ("Quelque Chose Tient Mon Coeur") and Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love" ("Pour un Peu d'Amour"), but struggled to sustain his success in the '70s, when he instead devoted his time to writing books on his other main passion, Russian aircraft from World War II.

As an artist, French singer-songwriter Yves Simon (born in Choiseul, France, 1944) lived two lives. On one hand, he was a writer, publishing almost one book a year since 1971 and eventually being rewarded (in 1988 and 1991). On the other hand, he was an almost as prolific recording artist, having released around twenty LPs since 1967, though his two first outings remained under the radar.