State of Art Limited Edition CD Mini-LP Gatefold Replica Sleeve with Original Sleeve Notes featuring Francoise Hardy's first two albums Francoise Hardy and Francoise Hardy Sings in Italian When a 17-year-old Franoise Hardy signed her first record deal in 1961, she unwittingly helped kick off a new musical movement. Alongside contemporaries like France Gall, Sylvie Vartan, and Sheila, Hardy quickly became a star of y-y (Yeah! Yeah!), the burgeoning French pop style, derived from the British beat scene, that mixed sentimentality with overt sexuality. But the notoriously shy Parisian's songs were also haunted by insecurity, loneliness, and a fear of temporality. This mystique, paired with Hardy's undeniable beauty, made her a muse to men like Bob Dylan, who famously immortalized her in prose on the back cover of 1964's Another Side of Bob Dylan. But reducing Hardy to a mere muse erases her extensive impact on music, fashion, and culture at large. "More than a singer, she's becoming a universal myth with whom thousands of young girls dream of identifying," claimed one French publication in 1967.
