Unearthing an eccentric slice of 1980s novelty pop from France.
French pop music is unjustly dismissed by many people who seem oblivious to just how awful most British pop music is, but I’ll concede that it is often something of an acquired taste. Recently, I found myself researching the French model, actress and singer Myriam Daujat for a work project and in that process stumbled upon her 1984 single Mister Pig.
Myriam Daujat was – and arguably still is – a cabaret performer in France who worked in vaudeville shows and cafe bars as well as doing TV and modelling work. She pops up – I’m not quite sure where, but almost certainly lacking clothes – in the 1986 erotic French film Dressage and appeared in the music show La Classe around the same time. In 2015, she made a return to live performances after a long break with the show Enfer et contre tout, which she also wrote.
Mister Pig would seem to be her only foray into recording, and it’s an eccentric little number, released on the Tempsti record label. It doesn’t seem to have been a hit, despite the cleavage-heavy cover art and the oddball eccentricity that some people – like me – would find irresistible. It’s sung in a hellish collision of French and English and delights in lyrics like
Mister Pig bravo!
You are big macho
You are big macho (macho, macho, macho, macho)
Well done to songwriters N Arikhbaieff and D Sprinfield (that’s ‘Sprinfield’, not Springfield, in case you thought Dusty had some odd involvement in this).
Enjoy!
Help support The Reprobate:
