Person

Barclay, Eddie

1921-2005

French music producer Eddie Barclay, whose clients included Jacques Brel, Dalida and Charles Aznavour, was born Édouard Ruault in Paris. His father and mother, a waiter and a postal worker, bought the Café de la Poste opposite the Gare de Lyon in the late 1920s. His grandmother in the suburb of Tavernay helped look after him and his brother as youngsters, but when he was 15 he quit school to help at the café. Especially enamored of jazz, he taught himself music and piano, and became skilled enough to be hired as a pianist at L’Étape club, where another performer then was Louis de Funès, later a movie star. During the war in occupied Paris, he and his young “zazou” friends would gather at his home to listen to jazz (forbidden by the Nazis) and other illegal radio programs. His next piano job was for Pierre-Louis Guerin (later owner of the famous Lido cabaret). In the wake of the American liberation of Paris, he changed his name to American-sounding “Eddie Barclay” and opened “Eddie’s Club.” In 1947, he launched a band with his second wife Nicole doing the vocals (under the stage name “Eve Williams”). The two founded “Blue Star Records,” using their home to store the 78s and Eddie’s scooter, which was used for delivering them. Among their musicians were Don Byas and Eddie Constantine. Barclay also co-wrote some songs with Charles Aznavour and Boris Vian, including “Quand tu m’embrasse,” later recorded by Josephine Baker. In addition, he wrote several film soundtracks. During this time, he also co-edited Jazz Magazine with Vian. In 1952 he traveled to the US where he was inspired by the new technology for 45s and LPs. Back in France, he started manufacturing and distributing for Mercury Records; he promoted the microgroove format to the French market, bringing 60 masters to Pathé-Marconi for reproduction. He released records by Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie, Sammy Davis, Junior, and Duke Ellington. Barclay Records was soon the top music-producing company in France with quality sound from the German sound engineer he hired, Gerhard Lehner. Another hire was 24-year-old Quincy Jones as musical director. The company’s release of the Platters’ “Only You,” sold 1.5 million copies. He “discovered” the Egyptian sensation “Dalida” in 1956, as well as Mireille Mathieu and Johnny Halliday. Many famous singers joined Barclay’s clientele, some, like Jacques Brel and Juliette Greco, abandoning his competitor, Philips. It was Barclay who gave Brel and Aznavour their real start. Brel’s last album, before he died in 1978, sold 650,000 copies the day it was released. In the early 1980s Barclay sold his company to Polygram and retired to Saint-Tropez where he had been building a house, Maison de Cap Ramauelle, for 25 years. Always dressed in his trademark white suit, he spent the next decades partying and marrying; he had a total of nine wives, earning the nickname “Bluebeard” from some paparazzi.