365 Days #267 - Mme St. Onge - Les 10 plus grands succes de... (mp3s)

MP3:
01 Il (Help) (2:33)
02 Et maintenant (3:05)
03 C'est le Freddy (2:16)
04 Tant de choses a dire (3:10)
05 Prends-moi (Try Me) (2:53)
06 Demain (3:02)
07 C'est si triste que je voudrais pleurer (I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry) (2:05)
08 Les marionnettes (2:31)
09 La fille d'Ipanema (One Note Samba) (1:29)
10 Chez moi (Call Me) (2:50)

Many of you may remember Mme St. Onge from the original 365 Days, where MP3-#009 (way back in January 2003) featured a somewhat frighteningly off-key French language rendition of the Beatles song "Help". Of course, what may appear frightening to some... sounds just right for the connoisseur of the strange and the off-beat. This LP came highly recommended as THE strangest Quebec recording made and (at least for us) it still holds that designation.

There can be no doubt that this is a send-off album, that it was done with a good sense of humour, and that those behind this recording had at least some idea of the existence of Mrs. Miller. (If you don't know who Mrs. Miller is, you may be listening in the wrong place right now). None of us have any idea who exactly was behind this recording and that mystery remains to be solved. Although we have not (as yet) sent the vinyl out for carbon dating, the references to 'Beatnick' clubs, where Mme. St Onge is purported to have performed, would place this somewhere between 1955 and 1975, though we guess it to be closer to the later of these dates.

For any amateur sleuths in the audience, along with the music, a few other clues are offered by the cover and record label:

1. Several of the songs are co-credited to the (recently deceased) Quebec singer-songwriter T(ony) Roman;
2. The only known photo of Mme St. Onge, found on the cover, looks suspiciously... er... masculine...
3. Slyly humorous liner notes (in French) with dedications to Mme St. Onge's neighbour 'Freddie Gagnon' and to 'amateur radio fans in south Labrador'!

If anyone has any information to solve this mystery we would all be pleased to hear from you.

And now, for your er... listening pleasure, we now present Mme St. Onge's ten greatest hits in all their vinyl glory.

- Contributed by: Brian and Cheryl

Images: Front and Back Cover

Media: 33rpm - 12" vinyl record
Album: Les 10 plus grands succès de...
Label: Laval Records Ltée. Montréal, Canada (Distributor)
Catalogue: ACM-701 (CT-34345)
Credits: Tracks 5, 7, 10 co-credited to T. (Tony) Roman
Date: None noted

Comments

[John Hebert]

My guess is that the name of the singer was taken from the author's name of this popular cookbook:

La Bonne Cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange: The Original Companion for French Home Cooking
http://www.amazon.com/Bonne-Cuisine-Madame-Saint-Ange-Companion/dp/1580086055/ref=sr_1_1/104-6782098-2516768?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190646318&sr=8-1

[jonp72]

I was digging through my e-mail archives, and I found this reference to article that identified Madame St. Onge. Unfortunately, the link mentioned in the article is dead.

>>
According to this article,
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/arts/article/1,144,0,102003,452471.shtml ,
she was a woman called Francine Laplante who also recorded a couple of better sounding singles under the name of Maryse Marshall. She retired from music in 1975, to raise her son. She died of cancer earlier this year at the age of 56 and she denied that she was Mme. St. Onge (which was a joke on one Pierre St. Onge)but her son confirmed that it was her.
<<

By the way, St. Onge is a very common last name in Francophone Canada. Calling somebody Mme St. Onge in Canada would be similar to calling somebody Mrs. Miller in the United States (which reinforces the idea that the record was a Quebecois spoof of the American Mrs. Miller).

[ssto]

Mme. St. Onge is what you call my mother, thank you very much.

[Black spaghetti]

My friends and I (we're québécois!) are seriously suspecting Jacques Desrosiers to be the enigmatic Mme St-Onge.... M. Desrosiers was mostly famous for his clown personea called Patof (the clown from Russia), in the 70's.

Here's a movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQPwFARwkLc&feature=related

and a picture of the guy, without the make-up:
http://www.telesouvenirs.com/ts/starts.asp?IdStar=JacquesDesrosiers

Jacques Desrosiers died in 1996, keeping his secret with him in his grave.

[(!?)]

According to this website:

http://www3.sympatico.ca/foreste/radiococh/oldnew.html

Mme St-Onge was the mother of Maxime Farago ...the son of Johnny farago. (!?) The author of the site is claiming that Maxime himself had communicated with him to get the recordings of his mother

quotation form the site:

"Mme St-Onge a longtemps été une énigme. Son album est sorti dans l'anonymat, laissant tout le monde croire que c'était vraiment une vieille madame qui avait voulu faire un disque malgré son manque de talent. Finalement, on a appris plus tard que c'était la mère de Maxime Farago qui a simplement voulu faire une blague. Même quand on sait que c'est poche exprès, ça reste amusant."

[Black Spaghetti]

I put on my blog (http://blackspaghet.blogspot.com/) a picture of Jacques Desrosiers in the 60's to let you compare his face with Mme St-Onge's.

Here's the footage that's come from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttgHK1bbCWI

[Axel]

I love this album. Wish there was a chance to to buy the Vinyl

[Duke & Banner]

Do The Freddy is from 4/65
Help is from 8/65

Therefore, the album is from late 65.

And it tastes baad.