Lucille Starr is a Canadian singer, popular roughly from 1960 to 1980. Starr has had a long and illustrious career both before and after her big international hit, The French Song.
From Winnipeg, Manitoba to Vancouver, British Columbia
Born in St. Boniface, a francophone suburb of Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1938, Lucille Raymonde Marie Savoie was raised in British Columbia in the French-speaking community of Maillardville (now part of a Vancouver suburb). By her teens, she was singing with a local choir called Les Hirondelles (The Swallows).
According to Margaret Daly and Betty Nygaard King in The Canadian Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, Savoie began her career as Lucille Starr in Vancouver in 1954 as lead singer for a band run by Keray Regan. Two years later she hooked up - both musically and romantically - with Keray's brother Bob. The two married and moved to Los Angeles to tour as "Lucille and Bob".
Lucille and Bob, The Canadian Sweethearts
"The duo had several successful singles in both the U.S. and Canada, including No Help Wanted," reports an anonymous description at MiniNova. "With her powerful voice and vibrant performances, Starr soon attracted notice from several label executives, one of whom dubbed the act The Canadian Sweethearts."
As part of the Sweethearts, Starr appeared in many TV shows and specials. They performed in the company of such country greats as Hank Snow and Wilf Carter. They toured North America, Europe, Asia, and South Africa, riding the wave of revival of country and folk in the early sixties.
The French Song (Quand le Soleil Dit Bonjour Aux Montagnes)
For Starr, the wave crested in the mid-sixties. In 1962, she recorded a solo album, The French Song (A & M LP-107) produced by Herb Alpert for A & M Records and released in 1964. MiniNova states that the title cut featured Alpert's Tijuana Brass, but this is doubtful.
"Sung in French and English, and characterized by Starr's distinctive vibrato," write Daly and King, "it was popular during 1964-5 in Canada, the US, Europe, Australia, Asia, and South Africa." Country Music News, Jan 1998, reported that the song sold a million copies and the album five million. Daly and King point out that this makes Starr "the first Canadian female singer to earn a gold record."
Jolie Jacqueline, Bonjour Tristesse
The Canadian Sweethearts continued well into the late sixties and early seventies with a string of hits. Besides Quand le soleil dit bonjour aux mongagnes, Starr had a number of bilingual successes, including Jolie Jacqueline (Pretty Jacqueline) and Bonjour Tristesse (Hello Sadness) as well as many hits in English. Although these were popular, none matched the success of The French Song.
Alone Again - Grand Ole Opry to Canadian Country Express
In 1977, Starr and Regan split, he to a solo career in Germany, she to solo in Canada. She continued to tour with the Grand Ole Opry, and performed on her own across Canada. A number of Canadian hits (Power in Your Love' 'The First Time I've Ever Been in Love') in the early to mid- eighties (interrupted by surgery for vocal cord polyps) led to a gig co-hosting 'Canadian Country Express' around 1989-90.
The Canadian Country Music Association site reports that Starr now lives in Los Vegas and continues to perform occasionally.
Lucille Starr's Achievements
- Singing and yodelling voice of Cousin Pearl in "The Beverly Hillbillies" TV show
- Quand le Soleil Dit Bonjour Aux Montagnes is the second biggest selling single in the history of Canadian recording
- First Canadian female recording artist to appear on Nashville's Grand Ole Opry
- First woman inducted into the Canadian Country Music Association Hall of Honor (1987) and Hall of Fame (1989)
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