| # | Fact |
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| 1 | His record company has always had difficulty to write a biography mentioning how many records he sold (the sales if they were to be piled, one on top of the other, would represent 20 times the high of the Eiffel Tower), or how many gold records he got throughout the 58 countries where his albums were released. |
| 2 | By 1958 Pourcel started recording classical music. His series of Pages Célèbres led to him conduct the London Symphony Orchestra, The Society of Concerts for the Conservatoire, The BBC Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, and the Lamoureux Orchestra at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. |
| 3 | Franck was very serious, dedicated to his work and tireless; he was a perfectionist, writing his arrangements himself, choosing the songs, the musicians, the studio, the editing, and the design of the cover. He was so meticulous that sometimes his musicians thought he was a tyrant!. |
| 4 | «In the strange world of show-business where you can find many con-artists and wind merchants, there is a distinguished man, whose look is more that of a diplomat than an artist: Franck Pourcel is discreet, modest and without pretense, this quiet man with a handsome silhouette has recorded and sold more records than most French artists combined together.» That's the way Michel Drucker (most famoust TV host on the french TV) described Franck in the seventies, before inviting him twice on his show with his orchestra, in 1981 and 1984. |
| 5 | His daughter Françoise Pourcel, is taking care of his musical legacy. |
| 6 | Franck was the musical director of some singers, among them Yves Montand, and he was hired for 3 months by Bruno Coquatrix, the future manager of the Olympia de Paris, to be the conductor of the famous singer Lucienne Boyer ; he would in fact stay 8 years and tour the world with her. |
| 7 | In 1975 Franck was asked by Air France to compose the Anthem for the new supersonic Concorde, because he was considered one of the 3 most exported French product with Brigitte Bardot and Air France. |
| 8 | Between 1956 and 1972 he was the conductor for France at the Eurovision Song Contest with the exceptions of 1957 and 1968. Four of the songs that he conducted won first place for France. As a result, France became the most successful country in the contest's early years, until Luxembourg matched its four wins in 1973. |
| 9 | He revitalized the violin. Jazz and popular music had little by little succeeded in removing the violin from any importance in musical entertainment. Franck, believing in the violin's versatility and enormous possibilities, constantly fought this trend. To pronounce the word «violin» is to touch the heart of Franck. Once he said: " For me, the violin is the instrument closest to the human voice. I don't play it, I make it sing. It should be considered a vocal instrument, an instrument that speaks to the heart of man». |
| 10 | His records have been exported to 58 countries. |
| 11 | When he came back from Paris, where he studied, to Marseilles where he worked in theaters, one of them the Opera. At night he played drums in nightclubs. This explains, how, later, his orchestrations will be based on strings and percussions. |
| 12 | He rather preferred to show his back directing the orchestra than his face to a camera. |
| 13 | His father was a technician but also a musician in the Navy in Marseilles. |
| 14 | He was a very discreet man, who never played up his personal or professional life. He was proud of his trophies, but didn't talk about them. He smashed all sales records for the Europeans orchestras without fanfare or boosting. |
| 15 | In 1959, he released» Only You», 2 years after the fantastic success of the title by The Platters. But arranging it « |
| 16 | A few of his musicians started a career on their own: Michel Legrand was playing piano in the orchestra when he was young. In his orchestra he had Raymond Lefevre, Paul Mauriat and Jean-Claude Casadessus, at that time playing percussions in Pourcels classical recordings. |
| 17 | He has composed some songs that he recorded, but rarely, because he did not liked his own compositions. The most famous, «Chariot», started like a joke. It was composed with his friends Paul Mauriat and Raymond Lefevre , with lyrics by Jacques Plante. At that time, in 1962, everything coming from the US was striking gold, so they invented a story that the song was the soundtrack of a new western movie produced by the 20th century Fox with the title: »You'll never See It». Petula Clark sung the song and had a hit. |
| 18 | Between 1954 and 1957, he kept recording: 9 LPs in 3 years. He created the series Amour Danse et Violons, which include 54 Lps. |
| 19 | «Franck has the talent to ennoble the most simple melodies.....entering his music was and still is like entering the Pantheon» said Salvatore Adamo. |
| 20 | In 1962 he co-composed with Paul Mauriat the hit, "Chariot", which was recorded by Petula Clark and followed up by Peggy March as "I Will Follow Him". The song became the main theme for the film, Sister Act. , Eminem included some bars in his song «Guilty Conscience». |
| 21 | He was not only a director of easy listening music, but he directed also 'The London Symphony Orchestra' and 'Die Berliner Philharmoniker'. He formed his first orchestra in 1953, and sold his records in 53 countries. He was one of the first conductors who used the techniques of an ech-box. |
| 22 | He was one of the first conductors who used the techniques of an echo-box. |
| 23 | His father give him the name of Franck -with -ck- because he admired the composer, César Franck. He was the first French artist who sold more than a million records in the United States. |
$10 Million
