French music producer Barclay dies

updated 7:46 p.m. ET May 13, 2005

Eddie Barclay, a flamboyant French music producer whose stable of singers included Jacques Brel and Charles Aznavour and who worked for years with Quincy Jones, has died. He was 84.

Barclay died overnight Thursday at the Ambroise Pare hospital in Paris, the Barclay organization said Friday. He had been in the hospital since April 29 and suffered from urinary and pulmonary infections in recent weeks.

Born in 1921 in Paris, Barclay started his production house in the 1950s and marketed artists from the U.S. company Mercury. After selling 1½ million copies of The Platters’ “Only You,” Barclay’s label rose to become France’s top music production company at the time.

He was famous for wearing white and holding exclusive parties in Saint-Tropez where guests also wore white.

“After the death of Eddie Barclay, there’s no more show business, there’s only business left,” the French singer Carlos, a close friend, told RTL radio.

Barclay started his career as a jazz pianist before setting himself up as a music producer and changing his name from Edouard Ruault.

Jones, who composed and arranged two of Barclay’s albums — Et Voila in 1957 and Twilight Time in 1960 — said a close friend and mentor “has left the room, but he will never, ever leave my heart.”

In a statement, Jones said Barclay hired him at the age of 24 to be musical director of Barclay Records, “introducing me to a life that I never dreamed of.”

Brel, the poet-singer from Belgium who died in 1978, started a long relationship with Barclay in 1962, and recorded hits such as “Le Plat Pays,” (“The Flat Country”) and “Les Bigotes” (“The Holier-than-thous”) on his label.

Aznavour, who met Barclay more than 60 years ago, said he had lost a close friend.

“He came looking for me late but he gave me the freedom to do what I wanted,” he told France Info radio. “He taught himself about music, he had music in his heart and his head.”

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