Les Chats Sauvages (The Wild Cats), a 1960s French rock and roll band, was originally composed of Dick Rivers (Hervé Forneri) on vocals, John Rob (Jean-Claude Roboly) on guitar, James Fawler (Gérard Roboly) on guitar, Jack Regard (Gérard Jaquemus) on bass, and Willy Lewis (Wiliam Taïeb) on drums. The later was successively replaced by Armand Molinetti, Dean Shelton and Andre Ceccarelli.
In February 1961, the British music magazine, NME, reported that the band’s concert at the Palais des Sports de Paris, while headlining with UK rock singer, Vince Taylor, had turned into a full-scale riot.
The departure of Rivers in the summer of 1962, who was replaced by Mike Shannon, affected the band's popularity, which nevertheless continued its career. They charted with the song "Derniers Baisers", which was covered with success by C. Jerome in 1986, and Laurent Voulzy in 2006.
In 1963, John Rob visited New York with the group's American manager, Andre M. Lauffer, a New York attorney, for the purpose of "making the rounds" of the popular television shows. They met with The Ed Sullivan Show producers and were promised consideration for a future appearance. The laws for overseas entertainers were restrictive and the group could not meet the requirements at that time.
Les Chats Sauvages broke up in 1964. In 1982, they released an album with Dick Rivers, to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of their formation.
Editor’s Note: While I don’t know enough French to understand the lyrics, I do know that the music of Les Chat Savauges sounds a lot like groups I listened to in the early 1960s. As the teens used to say on American Bandstand, “It has a good beat, and I can dance to it.”
While they do not sound much like Elvis Presley, as with many singers and groups of the era, you can see the influences of Elvis and American rock and roll in their music and style. C.M.
Information from Wikipedia, with edits by Carolyn MacArthur, SIDEBURNS Magazine Photo of Laurent is credited to meoldy.tv.