Rue ’66
Depuis 2010
All your favorites, in a different language. Rue ’66 plays the songs you already know by heart — the Beatles, Brown Eyed Girl, the hits that filled sixties dance floors — sung the way Paris heard them: in French.
That’s no gimmick. In the mid-sixties, France answered the British invasion with yé-yé — the giddy, guitar-driven pop of France Gall, Sylvie Vartan, Françoise Hardy and Serge Gainsbourg — and French stars recorded their own versions of the American and British hits of the day. So if you grew up on the originals, you’ll be singing along by the second chorus. And if you grew up in France, you’ll recognize the palette straight away: the yé-yé canon, alongside a handful of originals written in the same key.
Founded in November 2010 by guitarist Mark Zanandrea, bassist Don Ciccone and singer Carol Pott, the band has been bringing the Paris of 1966 to San Francisco ever since.
Carol Pott fell for the music while studying at the Sorbonne in the late 1990s. The name is a wink at Route 66; the sound is a Parisian club circa 1966, rebuilt in the Mission with period instruments, psychedelic dresses and a mono mixdown.
“I love singing these songs because they’re joyful, and that joy is contagious.”
Carol Pott — French Morning
Enregistré en mono
Recorded to tape and mixed in mono, the way it was done the first time around.
Four songs, in the French tradition of the sixties EP — and a tribute to Serge Martial. Three tracks cut at the historic Hyde Street Studios, one captured live; mixed in mono by Chris Von Sneidern at Tape Vault, San Francisco.
The debut. Covers of the yé-yé canon alongside the band’s own Je T’aime Quand Même, Je M’en Fous and Jamais Trop Tard Pour Linda. Co-produced by Paul Monroe Martin of the Vipers, engineered by Chris Von Sneidern, and dedicated to guitarist and co-founder Mark Zanandrea.
Les musiciens
A five-piece: voice, guitar, bass, keys and drums.
Serge Martial — vocals, guitar, percussion. The band’s one true Frenchman, formerly of Résurrection, who joined by climbing onstage uninvited during a Rue ’66 set and never really left. He sang and played through his illness, and died in 2020. Partie de Dames is his; its closing track is the last song he performed with the band, recorded live at a sold-out San Francisco show.
Mark Zanandrea — guitar, co-founder. The debut album is dedicated to him.
“This little adventure lets me show Americans that French music can be fun to listen to and to dance to.”
Serge Martial, 2014
En concert
No dates on the books right now.
New shows land on Facebook first. For bookings, get in touch.
Photos
Contact
Clubs, festivals, Bastille Day, private parties, anything that needs a dance floor.
The fastest way to reach Rue ’66 is a message on Facebook.
