Lucille Starr (born May 13, 1938)** is a Canadian Franco-Manitoban / British Columbian singer, songwriter, and yodeler best known for her 1964 hit single, "Quand Le Soleil Dit Bonjour Aux Montagnes" ("The French Song").
Starr was born Lucille Marie Raymonde Savoie in Saint Boniface, Manitoba. She was raised in Port Coquitlam and Coquitlam's Francophone community of Maillardville, British Columbia, where she learned to play guitar, bass and mandolin.Savoie started her musical career with the local group Les Hirondelles and then became the female lead with the Keray Regan Band. She married band member and country singer Bob Regan (Robert Fredriksen), and, using the stage name Lucille Starr, she began performing with him as a country singing duo called "Bob & Lucille". Their first recording was the 1958 rockabilly single "Eeny-Meeny-Miney-Moe,", released through Ditto, a small recording studio in Hollywood, California.
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The duo had several successful singles in both the U.S. and Canada, including "No Help Wanted." With her powerful voice and vibrant performances, Starr soon attracted notice from several label executives, one of whom dubbed the act the Canadian Sweethearts.
Whilst in California, the two frequently appeared on local country music shows and on ABC's Country America show, where they appeared regularly for two years. They also appeared on the Grand Ole Opry, and toured North America with Hank Snow, Wilf Carter and Little Jimmy Dickens. Between 1958 and 1963 they released several 45 rpm
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records that were mainly covers of an eclectic mix of fashionable country, pop, rockabilly and folk songs of people such as Perry Como to Connie Francis. A capable yodeler, she was hired to do the yodeling for the "Cousin Pearl" character on several segments of the hit TV series, The Beverly Hillbillies.
Both Starr and the Canadian Sweethearts signed to A&M Records in 1963, the latter reaching the Top 50 with "Hootenanny Express." They also had two top-rated hits in Canada, including "Looking Back to See."
In 1964 Starr recorded a song called "The French Song" that was produced by Herb Alpert. It was recorded in both French and English. At that time when The Beatles dominated the music charts, "The French Song" was an international success that made Starr the first Canadian artist to have a record sell over a million copies.
In 1967, Starr and her Canadian Sweethearts duo signed a recording contract with Epic Records in Nashville, Tennessee and recorded with producer Billy Sherrill. She appeared regularly on the charts through the mid-'70s.. The couple divorced in 1967 but continued to perform together occasionally until 1977, when they decided it was time the Canadian Sweethearts be sweethearts no more. In 1978 she married Bryan Cunningham.Lucille had several hit singles in Canada during the 1980s, never again achieving the heights she enjoyed with “The French Song” but carving out a solid, respectable niche for herself as a top-tier interpretive vocalist fluent in English, French and Spanish.
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She toured during the 1980s with a troupe from Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, appeared with both Hank Snow and Wilf Carter, performed widely on her own in Canada, and was co-host 1989-90 for 'Canadian Country Express,' syndicated from CHRO-TV, Pembroke, Ont. She also performed several times as a headliner in Holland, where she made her first appearance in 1965.
In 2010 a jukebox musical based on her career titled Back to You: The Life and Music of Lucille Starr (script by Tracey Power), had a short run at the Prairie Theatre Exchange in Winnipeg, and she’s also had a street named in her honour in the city of Coquitlam, British Columbia. In 1987 she became the first woman inducted into the Canadian Country Music Association Hall of Honour and in 1989
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was made a member of the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame. Her son, Bob Frederickson, was the guitarist in a later version of Buffalo Springfield.
was made a member of the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame. Her son, Bob Frederickson, was the guitarist in a later version of Buffalo Springfield.Starr continued to tour the world through to the 1990s and perform on special occasions until she had brain surgery in 2011. Since then she has also recently undergone cancer surgery in 2017.
For his part, Bob Regan teamed up with a new female counterpart in Keree Rose and continued performing until his passing in Los Angeles on March 5, 1990.
(Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic & Deep Roots magazine)
Here's Lucille Star, live in 1990 at the Floralia Festival in Oosterhout, Holland, with West Virginia Railroad performing ‘I’ll Go Stepping Too,’ ‘Making Believe’ and ‘Cotton Fields’
** (Footnote: I have found information from a Facebook comment regarding Lucille's death in 2017. I have contacted the sender and am currently awaiting confirmation. I will remove this note if no reply after a week or unless someone has any news regarding Ms. Starr.)