Voyage voyage - Desireless

Whenever you feel depressed, leave it to the French to push you over the brink of suicide. Desireless' 'Voyage voyage' sounds like an uptempo pop song, but the underlying message is less upbeat. The fact that I can't understand a word of French also helps, of course.

This 12" single features two remixes of the track. The 'Britmix' was created by Pete Hammond and Peter Waterman, whereas the Euro remix was created by Steve Prestage. Both remixes are quite good, actually.

My collection: 12" single no. 427
Found: Record Exchange, London, 2000
Cost: 1 pound
Tracks: 'Voyage voyage (Britmix)' / 'Voyage voyage (Euro remix)', 'Destin fragile (instrumental)'

Voyage voyage - Desireless

Desireless was born as Claudie Fritsch-Mentrop on December 25, 1952 in Paris, France. In 1983, she met Jean-Michel Rivat, a composer and record producer who had already made his name working with Michel Delpech, France Gall and Patrick Juvet, amongst others.

In 1986, Rivat composed 'Voyage Voyage', a synthpop song that topped the charts in many European countries, and even reached number five in the UK Singles Chart — a rare feat for a French-language song, although this was a remix of the original entry, which made number 53 in the UK.

I have both releases: the original one (pictured above) and the UK remix version (pictured below). Having heard the two singles, I still can't quite figure out the difference between the two. Maybe if you play it loud...?

Original version
My collection: 7" single no. 3144
Found: Record fair, Amsterdam, September 18, 1999
Cost: 2 guilders
Tracks: 'Voyage voyage' / 'Destin fragile (instrumental)'

Remix version
My collection: 7" single no. 2487
Found: House of Rhythm, London, October 30, 1995
Cost: 80p
Tracks: 'Voyage voyage (remix)' / 'Destin fragile (instrumental)'