Beyond The Guess Who: France Joli- "Come To Me"
Each week on Beyond The Guess Who I cover a lesser-known Canadian artist. This week, Canadian Disco Diva France Joli.
Welcome to Beyond The Guess Who. Each week, I cover a lesser-known musical artist. This week, it’s France Joli. If you like what you’ve read, please hit like, comment and subscribe. Thank You!
When I was 13, the film 54 came and went from movie theatres. Admittedly, it wasn’t the greatest. Large chunks wound up on the cutting room floor and a superior edit is said to lurk somewhere.
However, the soundtrack was fantastic. As was customary at the time, it was released in two parts. HMV had both volumes available at their listening stations. I bought the second volume because it had both Stars on 54’s cover “If You Could Read My Mind” and a Grace Jones song (“I Need A Man”), on it. I was a big fan of the Stars On 54 single at the time and remember checking an issue of Billboard to see how it was doing on the charts. I remember being miffed that it was nowhere to be seen, but Cher, who seemingly hadn’t charted in ages, actually had a song on the charts. In Cher’s defense, it was “Believe” and she deserved it but try telling that to a 13-year-old.
One of the tracks, France Joli’s “Come To Me” didn’t catch my attention until I played the song after purchasing the CD. I was blown away by the production as well as Joli’s voice. I was blown away not long after when via a Billboard chart info book she had only been 16 when the single was a hit.
France Joli was born France Joly on February 2, 1963, in Dorion, Quebec. By 11, she focused solely on her career, working on television commercials and appearing in talent shows. At some point, she met producer Tony Green who wrote “Come To Me” for her.
“Come To Me” was recorded at the end of 1978 when Joli was only 15 years old. The album was released around April 1979 and Joli’s career received a boost soon after. Donna Summer was scheduled to perform at the BEACH ‘79 party on Fire Island but cancelled at the last minute. Joli was contacted to replace her. Performing in front of 5,000 people, Joli was well received. Joli considers this concert a high point in her career and to this day she still thanks the LGBTQIA+ community for their support.
“Come To Me” wound up peaking at #15 on the Billboard and RPM charts. Joli appeared on several television shows to promote the single. It seemed like a bright start, but unfortunately, the timing was wrong.
Towards the end of 1979, the disco backlash reared it’s ugly head. Many artists suffered accordingly. Joli was among them.
There were heavy attempts to promote Joli. Notably, she appeared twice on The Midnight Special and as Cinderella on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Nothing seemed to work.
Her second album, 1980’s Tonight attempted to change her sound. There were still disco numbers (“The Heart To Break The Heart” successfully copied the same formula as “Come To Me”) but several tracks also tried to branch out into pop territory. One of these, the ballad “This Time - I’m Giving All I’ve Got” was chosen as a single. It’s one of the stronger tracks on the album but unfortunately, the single stalled at #103 on the Billboard Bubbling Under and Joli never got near the Hot 100 again. “Heart To Break The Heart” was logically chosen as the next single but it’s safe to say that because of the disco backlash (again), it fell on deaf ears outside the dance charts where it peaked at #3.
Joli’s career was far from over and she was still (rightfully) seen as a huge potential star. Her next single “Gonna Get Over You” was a huge dance hit that peaked at #2. She also secured an opening slot for The Commodores on their 1981 American tour. Her next album, 1982’s Now! featured “Gonna Get Over You” and still featured ballads amongst a few uptempo dance tracks, but works better than her previous effort courtesy of production by Ray Reid and William Anderson from Crown Heights Affair.
Prelude was smart about what singles to pick off of Joli’s albums. “Your Good Lovin’” is a funky slice of Evelyn King-esque dance pop that should have been bigger than #53 on the dance charts. After this, Joli left Prelude for Epic Records. Despite being on a major label, things started to go downhill.
A more artist-oriented label like Prelude knew what to do with her. Even if Joli’s singles weren’t major pop smashes, they did well on the dance charts and the choices were smart.
For her first Epic album, 1983’s Attitude, Joli on paper at least seemed to be in good hands. The talented Pete Bellotte was chosen as a producer. The legendary Giorgio Moroder executive produced (fellow legends Sparks had a similar arrangement with Moroder on their early 1980s albums).
The album isn’t awful, but it’s not one of Bellote and Moroder’s best efforts. Joli isn’t handed the strongest material on some of the tracks and it starts to feel like the soundtrack to some long-lost 1980’s movie. She did have two strong tracks that could have turned things around with “Dumb Blonde” and “Blue Eyed Technology”.
Both tracks were passed over as the lead single for the Jay Ferguson co-written “Girl In The 80’s”. Joli appeared on Solid Gold to promote it.
The song itself is cheesy, and the lyrics and title weren’t made to age well, but Bellotte’s production and Joli’s vocal on it are top notch and it’s understandable why it was chosen as a single. Should it have been the lead single, though? Probably not.
“Blue Eyed Technology” was eventually chosen as the follow-up. It alongside “Dumb Blonde” (which did have a Canadian single release) would have both been stronger lead-off singles and might have provided the elusive second Hot 100 entry. Unfortunately, this alongside “Girl In The 80’s” were modest dance hits (#46 and #61, respectively). No videos seem to have been filmed for either of her Epic albums. It’s a shame because “Blue Eyed Technology” would have made for a fun video clip.
Her next album, 1985’s Witch Of Love would be her last for 13 years. The lead single “Does He Dance” (another Jay Ferguson co-written number) is a fun track that should have been a huge hit. It hit #40 on the dance charts, her biggest single on that chart since “Gonna Get Over You”. This time, she was teamed up with George Duke who served as producer.
The previous year, Joli had won the Yamaha Music Festival for Canada with the composition “Party Lights” produced by Duke. Interestingly, the song was passed over as a single despite the accolades.
No further singles were picked from the album, and Epic dropped Joli shortly after. She continued to perform and in the mid-90s teamed up once again with Tony Green. This resulted in a #24 dance hit with 1997’s “Touch”. Her next album “If You Love Me” followed the next year. I remembered seeing it in HMV around the time I first heard of France Joli, but didn’t hear the album until writing this piece. I’m not the biggest fan of certain late 90’s dance music styles, but Joli, then only in her 30s, holds her own. In a better world, this album would have been a smash on the dance charts giving Joli her own Cher moment.
Unfortunately, in this world, the next time I recalled seeing her pop up was performing “Come To Me” on a disco music special during a PBS pledge drive opposite none other than Brady Bunch star Barry Williams providing the male vocals. I remember thinking she deserved so much better.
Despite this, France Joli seems fine with things going the way they did. She had some great opportunities during her career and in interviews focuses on those. She remains an online presence and continues to perform, remaining a fixture at LGBTQIA+ events nearly 45 years on.
Joli has continued to record and perform live, with her most recent singles “Let Me Love You” and “Fallin’” released in 2022. The latter is closest in style to her late 70’s output.
It’s easy to say an artist deserved better or should have had a better career and I have gone that route more than once but Joli has done pretty well and has a dedicated fanbase who still appreciate her music and the work she has done for the LGBTQIA+ community as an ally to this day. All in all, it’s a pretty good story.
Great read! The deep dive into Joli’s career was both informative and engaging. I loved learning about her journey and impact on the dance music scene and the LGBTQIA+ community. Your passion for uncovering artists shines through. Keep up the fantastic work! Looking forward to next week!
Maybe you could write movies for them. Like, to go with the faux soundtracks