Gilles Brown

Gilles Brown was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada^[1]: 56 on 6 February 1943.^[2][3]

He was trained in journalism and communications.^[4]

He formed the Valentins with Pierre Laurendeau in 1962. The Valentins became somewhat popular thanks to the song "Parce que". He also had his debut as a radio announcer in 1962.^[1]: 56

He went solo in 1964^{[1]: 56 [5]} and had his first hit with "Monsieur la basse", a French adaptation of "Mr. Bass Man" by Johnny Cymbal.^[5] He also became successful through "Ce soir", "C’est toi que j’aime", "Mon ange", "Le chef de la bande" and "Agent secret". He participated in the tour Musicorama in 1966.^[1]: 56

Gilles Brown was one of Quebec's first yé-yé performers. He had a stable level of popularity during multiple years, but never became a great star.^[1]: 56

He was a prolific songwriter, writing for Les Sultans and Stéphane, and making francophone adaptations of hundreds of anglophone songs for the producers Denis Pantis, Tony Roman, Guy Cloutier and Yves Martin.^[1]: 56

He wrote the biggest hits of multiple performers in 1963–1973, including César et les Romains ("Toi et moi"), Fernand Gignac ("Ne pleure pas"), the Gendarmes ("Ne me quitte pas"), Michèle Richard ("Les boîtes à gogo") and Anne Renée ("Un amour d'adolescent").^[1]: 56 During this same period, he also wrote for Robert Demontigny, Jenny Rock, Claire Lepage, Michel Louvain, Les Lutins, Les Milady's, Les Baronets, Les Hou-Lops, Steve Fiset, Margot Lefebvre, Tony Massarelli, Ginette Reno, Claude Stében, Johnny Farago, Patrick Zabé, Liette Lomez, Céline Lomez, François Bégin, France Castel, Jean Nichol, Dany Aubé, Nada, Donald Lautrec, Jacques Boulanger, Jacques Salvail, Jean Malo, Nicole Martin, Anne Renée, Simon and Raynald Papillon.^[5]

Between 1971 and 1973, he recorded songs in a duo with Yves Martin, some of which like "Il ne faut pas pleurer" were very successful. In the early 1980s, he returned to songwriting and wrote the texts and music of three of Claude Valade's albums. He produced the latter under the label Création. He was part of the board of directors of the SPACQ.^[1]: 56

Brown died of cancer on 6 February 2016^[3] in Montreal.^[6] He had spent the last years of his life managing the art galleries Clarence-Gagnon in Montreal and in Baie-Saint-Paul,^[5] which he owned since the 1980s.^[4]