Jula De Palma in francese 1 playlist

Jula De Palma began recording at a very young age. She was just 18 when, in 1949, Teddy Reno’s CGD released her first 78 rpm, both sides of which are included in this playlist, Dance avec moi and Douce France. Perhaps convinced by her excellent pronunciation, Reno continued to have her make records in French (with a couple of tracks in English), and only in 1952, with Vogliamoci bene, did her first recording in Italian appear. 

Among the songs chosen for this playlist, some were not well known in Italy at the time, while others became classics beyond the Alps, starting with C’est si bon, launched in France by Yves Montand in 1958, and two songs of Charles Trenet, Retour de saisons and Menilmontant. 

In all the performances, Jula De Palma shows an enviable self-assurance and technical mastery, as if she were a singer with a career already behind her. She is given excellent support by the orchestras that accompanied her from time to time, those of Lelio Luttazzi and Bruno Quirinetta.

De Palma continued to record French songs even when she had a substantial repertoire in Italian, bearing witness to a clear artistic affinity with that repertoire. Nor did she back away from English, especially with some great American hits which quickly became classics.