At the age of ten, F.R. David moves to Paris with his parents. His father opens a shoe shop there and wants his son to take over the business later. But Fifi, as his classmates call him, leaves school and has only one goal in mind: he wants to become a musician.
From the life of F.R. David (Elie Robert Fitoussi)
F.R. David’s real name is Elie Robert Fitoussi. The French-Algerian singer has gained a high degree of popularity over decades both as guitarist and as composer and producer .
He was born on 01 January 1947 in Menzel Bourguiba, Tunisia. At the age of ten he moves to Paris with his parents. His father opens a shoe shop there and wants his son to take over the business later. But Fifi, as his classmates call him, leaves school and has only one goal in mind: he wants to become a musician.
The rocky road to a world career
He founds his first band with two neighboring children of the same age. The trigger is a win at a horse race, from which he, 13 years old, buys three electric guitars. With the bands Les Trèfles, Les Boots, Sans Nom and Les Jets he performs in pubs and clubs for years. During this time he learns about different music styles. In all his performances, the two identifying marks should not be missing: his sunglasses and his guitar, a white Fender Stratocaster/strong>.
Finally F.R. David meets the Greek artist Vangelis O. Papathanassiou, who hires him for the bass guitar part of his solo album Earth. F.R. David writes the song “Who” and takes over the lead vocals of the songs: Come On, He-O, Let It Happen and My Face In The Rain. The album was released in 1973 and shows a certain reference to the psychedelic era of the 60’s.
From 1973 to 1975, F.R. David was a singer with the French-Moroccan hard rock and electric blues band Les Variations, which engaged him for the album Café de Paris. He replaces the lead singer Joe Leb and tours with the band through America.
The Les Variations play, among other things, in the supporting programme for performances by groups such as Aerosmith, Kiss, The Who and The Jimi Hendrix Experience. But already in summer 1975 Robert Fitoussi left the live band Les Variations to continue his solo career as F.R. David.
After that he lives in New York. He worked as a studio musician in the USA for five years, which brought him together with musical greats such as Ray Charles, Toto, the Doobie Brothers, Richie Havens and The O’Jays and established new friendships. In 1978, he worked with Marc Tobaly, ex-guitarist of Les Variations, on the King Of Hearts project produced by David Krebs. They release an album and a single. The song Rock Fame, released in 1983, finds its way to the film “The Horny Ox and his Draught Horse” with Pierre Richard and Gérard Depardieu in 1981 and accompanies a pub scene.
F.R. David experiences hard times on his way as a professional musician. Eventually money runs out and he lives from hand to mouth, so to speak. This financial bottleneck forces him to change his mind. His agent asks him to write a danceable song. And F.R. David, the rock guitarist, composes a danceable song.
The text of the song is almost touching, because it deals with the problem that the singer is not able to find the right words to say “I love you” to his beloved. The fact that words are sung with a soft falsetto voice underlines the dilemma.
The big breakthrough happened
Exactly this song turns his fate. In 1982 he achieves his breakthrough with the catchy tune “Words”, which he wrote and sings and which conquers the charts by storm and sells more than eight million copies. F.R. David is a superstar and is touring Europe.
The 1982 hit list very clearly conveys the success of this mega-hit born of necessity.
Singles Hitliste 1982:
1981/82 on place 2 in France
08/1982 on place 1 in Germany, 11 weeks undisputed
10/1982 on place 1 in Austria
09/1982 on place 1 in Switzerland
03/1983 on place 2 in Great Britain
07/ 1983 on place 62 in the US Charts
F.R. David has made it, he becomes famous overnight with the song Words. In Germany, he receives the Golden Record for his world hit. Words is covered by artists like Daliah Lavi (1982), the Tremeloes (1983), James Last (1983) and Ricky King (1997).
In the 90s it gets quieter around F.R. David. He produces and composes mainly for other artists. In 1991 the album Greatest Hits is released, in 1992 the single I’ll Try to Love Again and in 1999 he releases the cover album 99 Version. Today he lives in Paris with his wife, with whom he has two children, gives concerts and continues to be active in the music business as a producer and songwriter.
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