Listen: Hello, Hello / Claudine Longet ClaudineHello.mp3

A horribly under appreciated icon, such is Claudine Longet, former wife of Andy Williams (himself not given enough props). Why she is not respected or even revered as one of the great French vocal impressionists is extremely unfair.

It wasn’t always that way, as her first few A&M albums indeed sold well, charted Top 30 and spawned a few much played singles on the adult contemporary stations.

Her cover of this Sopwith Camel hit, ‘Hello, Hello’ in ’67 was one such classic, a perfect mix of The Flying Lizards, Jo Ann Castle and Jane Birkin. As with most AC hits of the day, it struggled to a lowly pop #91 on the Billboard Top 100.

In good company though, as most of the great singles never got much traction on the US pop stations. Unfortunately, that hasn’t changed.