Paul Mauriat

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Paul Julien André Mauriat (4 March 1925 – 3 November 2006) was a French orchestra leader, conductor of Le Grand Orchestre de Paul Mauriat, who specialized in the easy listening genre. He is best known in the United States for his million-selling remake of André Popp's "Love is Blue", which was number 1 for 5 weeks in 1968. Other recordings for which he is known include "El Bimbo", "Toccata", "Love in Every Room/Même si tu revenais", and "Penelope". He (using the pseudonym Del Roma) co-wrote the song "Chariot" (also known as "I Will Follow Him") with Franck Pourcel (using the pseudonym J.W. Stole).
Mauriat began playing the piano between the ages of three and four, and his father gave him music lessons when he was eight. In 1935, at the age of 10, he enrolled in the Conservatoire in Marseille to study classical music, but by the time he was 17, he had fallen in love with jazz and popular music.
Relative to his peers, Paul Mauriat has one of the largest recording catalogues, featuring more than 1,000 titles just from his PolyGram era (1965–1993). Both Mauriat's single recording "Love is Blue" (1967) and the album Blooming Hits each sold over one million copies. The single was awarded a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America in March 1968.
He was awarded the Grand Prix (Grand Prize) from the French recording industry, a MIDEM trophy, and in 1997 won the prestigious distinction of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture. He has sold 6 million records in Japan.
On 3 November 2006, Paul Mauriat died in Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales, France, at the age of 81.
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