Jean Max Riviere

Born in Paris on October 19, 1937, Jean-Max Rivière is a successful French songwriter. Hired by the Philips label, he recorded four EPs under his own name: Saint-Germain du Brésil (1962), arranged and conducted by Claude Bolling, La Madrague (1963), in collaboration with Michel Colombier and his orchestra, Un Jour Comme Un Autre (1964) and Un Enfant (1965). Titles written by him and composed by Gérard Bourgeois formed the basis of a partnership that was to prove fruitful for French chanson in the 1960s. After adapting Dusty Springfield's "I Only Want to Be with You" for Richard Anthony in 1962, the pair went on to write several songs for Brigitte Bardot that same year, including "La Madrague" and "Le Soleil", while Françoise Hardy covered "L'Amitié" in 1965. Jean-Max Rivière and Gérard Bourgeois, who duet on Gérard Calvi's Asterix: They Sing! (1966), also enriched the repertoires of Vic Laurens, France Gall, Sylvie Vartan, Juliette Gréco, Dalida, Serge Reggiani with the famous "Il suffirait de presque rien " (1968) and Gilles Marchal for the hit "Liberté " in 1971. In 1973, the lyricist helped write the libretto for the rock opera La Révolution française, created by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil. He went on to set up his own publishing house, Media Max, and became a director of the Sacem. Awarded the Prix André-Didier Mauprey in 2005, Jean-Max Rivière received the insignia of Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2016.