Had your grandparents gone real deep into pop vocal music, I bet they might have turned up a Henri Salvador record or two, but otherwise, in the US, I’d reckon he’s quite unknown. Salvador was French, by way of French Guiana, and spent his exceptionally long life as a well-loved entertainer. He is also credited, under the name Henry Cording, with recording the first French, and very swinging, rock and roll record—”Rock’n Roll Mops“/”Rock hoquet, Va t’faire cuire un oeuf, man“/”Dis-moi qu’tu m’aimes rock.” Um, those tracks were recorded in 1957, when he was 40. Evidently in Europe, the rock-and-roll game wasn’t exactly a teenaged scene. His biggest dancer, however, is “Carnaby Street,” a real groovy mover, and I’ll argue it IS the best track he ever cut; I think this 45 came out around 1967, when Salvador was fucking 50 years old. Oh, oddly, he claimed to HATE rock and roll.
“Carnaby Street” was a bit of a one-off for Salvador. Style wise, his records can be all over, including novelty songs like “Juanita Banana,” but mostly he sticks to Caribbean or that lazy, easy Brazilian thing French pop vocalists really seem to love.