Elli Robert Fitoussi (born 1 January 1947), known professionally as F. R. David, is a French singer and musician. He is best known for his 1982 international hit single "

Words A word is a basic element of language that carries meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguists on its ...

", which topped the charts in multiple countries.

Early life, family and education

Elli Robert Fitoussi was born to a Tunisian Jewish family. He was born and grew up in Menzel Bourguiba, formerly known as Ferryville, which was then part of the

French protectorate of Tunisia The French protectorate of Tunisia (; '), officially the Regency of Tunis () and commonly referred to as simply French Tunisia, was established in 1881, during the French colonial empire era, and lasted until Tunisian independence in 1956. T ...

Career

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, he began his music career as Robert Fitoussi. He first performed with French garage band Les Trèfles. After one EP, they expanded and were renamed Les Boots, but achieved very little commercial success. Adopting his new stage name - in which the initials F.R. referred to the first letters of the artist's real name and surname, and “David” - to the myth of David and Goliath, because he is Jewish - he went solo in 1967 and recorded some orchestral psychedelic pop with

Michel Colombier Michel Colombier (23 May 1939 – 14 November 2004) was a French composer, arranger, and conductor. Career Colombier wrote the scores of several motion pictures and TV productions. He also wrote chamber music and ballets. With composer Pierre ...

, including a version of

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

' "

Strawberry Fields Forever "Strawberry Fields Forever" is a song by the English Rock music, rock band the Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was released on 13 February 1967 as a double A-side single with "Penny Lane". It represented ...

" ("''Il Est Plus Facile''"). He enjoyed minor hits with the

Éric Charden Éric Charden (; born Jacques-André Puissant ; 15 October 1942 – 29 April 2012) was a French singer and songwriter, best known for his collaborations with singer Stone, with whom they formed the band Stone et Charden. Éric Charden was ...

penned "Symphonie" and a cover of the

Bee Gees The Bee Gees were a musical group formed in 1958 by brothers Barry Gibb, Barry, Robin Gibb, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was especially successful in popular music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers in ...

' "Sir Geoffrey Saved the World", but this success did not last. He then created Aztec Records with

Sonopress Sonopress GmbH is an internationally active media service provider headquartered in Gütersloh, Germany. The company specializes in the production and distribution of physical and digital storage media and is part of the Bertelsmann Marketing Ser ...

& Carrer and started working with Michael Haubrich, where they wrote and produced for several small groups. The first was called Cockpit, followed by David Cast, Doc & Prohibition Group, Ragga, Alain Maria, Freddy Meyer, and DD Daughterdydawn with Vangelis Papathanassiou. During the early 1970s, F.R.David formed the progressive rock group David Explosion, but their one album was not a success. He was a guitarist for

Vangelis Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou (, ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; , ), was a Greek musician, composer, and producer of electronic, progressive, ambient, and classical orchestral music. He composed ...

in the early 1970s. With Vangelis, he also appeared as vocalist on some of his early 1970s albums. David's voice is also heard on the 1974 single "Who" by Vangelis under the name 'Odyssey'. David then joined French rock band

Les Variations Les Variations was a French rock band from the late 1960s to mid-1970s that sang mostly in English and was known for its rock guitar-based music. Several of its members were born in Morocco and were of Jewish origin. They were France's first ...

, appearing on their final album ''Café De Paris'' (1975), which featured an early rock-disco crossover "Superman, Superman". When the band broke up, he went solo again. His personal "trademarks" are his sunglasses and his guitar (a white

Fender Stratocaster The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of double- cutaway electric guitar designed between 1952 and 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corpora ...

). His most recognised song was his hit song "

", which sold eight million records worldwide and topped various

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent t ...

throughout Europe in late 1982. The song reached No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart in spring 1983, surpassing a rival version by 1960s hitmakers

the Tremeloes The Tremeloes (formerly Brian Poole and The Tremeloes) are an English beat group founded in 1958 in Dagenham, England. They initially found success in the British Invasion era with lead singer Brian Poole, scoring a UK chart-topper in 1963 with ...

, and went on to become the 22nd best-selling single in the UK during 1983. The song appears in the Oscar-nominated film for Best Picture, '' Call Me by Your Name''. The song is a catchy, slightly melancholy ballad led by synths and sung in a slender, high-pitched voice. During the 1990s, F.R.David focused on writing and composing for other well known artists. He released another album, ''Words – '99 Version'' in 2000 which contains mostly covers. In 2006, the album ''The Wheel'' - the track list of which was opened and closed by two new remixes of the song "Words" - was released. In 2009, F.R.David released the album ''Numbers'', which was recorded in collaboration with other musicians and featured songs that Robert himself most preferred. Between 2010 and 2011, he went on a national French tour of 52 concerts. In 2013, F.R.David released an album "Midnight drive".

Personal life

Elli Fitoussi is married, has two grown up children and one grandchild. He currently shares his time between his studio in

, France and his summer residence in

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

, Spain.

Discography

Studio albums

Compilation albums

* ''Rocker Blues'' (1986, Argentina only) * ''Greatest Hits'' (1991) * ''Best of F. R. David'' (2000) * ''Songbook'' (2003)

Singles

Discography in other formations

;with Les Trèfles * ''Sont ils innocent?'' (EP, 1965) ;with Les Boots * "Laissez briller le soleil"/"Trop tard"/"Le cerf-volant"/"Demain" (EP, 1966) * "Les gens sont méchants"/"Ali Baba"/"Vingt ans"/"Twen" (EP, 1966) * ''Tout Va Bien'' (Compilation, 1997) ;with Cockpit * ''Cockpit'' (album, 1971) * "Fifi"/"Father Machine" (single, 1971) * "Bright Tomorrow"/"Lena, Lena" (single, 1971) * "Mister Hardy"/"8 Days and a Wake Up" (single, 1972) ;with

* ''Café de Paris'' (album, 1975) ;with King of Hearts * ''Close, but No Guitar'' (album, 1978)

References

External links

F. R. DAVID's Official Website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:David, F. R. 1947 births English-language singers from France French male singer-songwriters French singer-songwriters 20th-century Tunisian male singers Les Variations members Living people People from Bizerte Governorate Tunisian Jews Tunisian emigrants to France Carrere Records artists Columbia Records artists Epic Records artists Sony Music artists Singers from Paris 20th-century French male singers 21st-century French male singers