As the thread title says, I really like what I call my “cheesy French love songs” although they’re not all love songs, basically I enjoy French vocalists, mostly from the 1920s through 50s-60s. I am especially fond of Charles Trenet. I don’t like Edith Piaf so much, but I may just have been exposed to too much of the extra-sappy stuff. Maurice Chevalier is OK, I’m just now discovering Jean Sablon and Mistinguett. I dunno what this genre is really called, or even if they’re all considered the same genre, I’m just trying to give my fellow dopers an idea of what I’m listening to now.
My problem is that it’s pretty hard to walk into a CD store, of whatever size, and just happen upon a clerk who is knowledgeable in this particular genre, especially since I feel like I’ve been through most of the best-known artists, including those listed above, plus Josephine Baker and Yves Montand. My general pattern now is to buy compilations of the sort that are titled “Paris Is For Lovers” and other such junk, but they usually contain mostly very popular stuff that I already have, and the quality is not always what it should be.
Basically, I’d like more specific suggestions of other artists I might like, and I figured that in the great big world of the SDMB, there have to be some other folks listening to this kind of music.