Soundtrack

Music is Different Here: How She Can’t Love You Became a French Disco Staple

Forgotten Gem to Cult Classic—Chemise’s 1982 Hit Still Echoes in France, but that's not the only one

Keith Christiansen

03 Feb 2025 — 4 min read

I was out at a bar over the weekend, and after a while, I couldn't help but notice that the entire playlist was American funk and disco. And it’s not like it was a dance club - there was a rugby match playing on every screen in the place, crowded conversations going on all over. It’s an Irish bar (one of several in this smaller city) located in France, playing a steady soundtrack of US disco throwbacks. It seemed a bit odd to me at first, but it's pretty normal here. Disco is kind of the background music of a lot of places in France.

The song that suddenly snapped the bar’s soundtrack from background music to the front of my attention was “She Can't Love You" - the 1982 release by Chemise, a short-lived duo of guitarist Ronald Muldrow and singer Rickie Byars Muldrow. With funky synth bass, shimmering keys, and playful vocals, the track bridges disco and early ‘80s boogie/post-disco.

It’s a one-hit wonder and it never cracked the top 10 in the US, but somehow got brought back over here, most likely from some random DJ discovering it and putting it out there. Or it was used in some TV show or soundtrack, a part of the reason that we’ll all be hearing Bob Dylan for the rest of our lives while overshadowing the many, many other very skilled and gifted music writers of his era.

It’s also about distribution. Or maybe just something about the song works better in another culture? I also seem to hear"Nutbush City Limits" by Ike & Tina Turner a lot here and it shows up on a surprising number of British anthologies, but I have never heard this song in the US. I mean, it got to #11 in 1973 in the US, but that’s a bit of a deep cut. It remains much more popular internationally. Apparently, it has its own dance in Australia: the famous Nutbush dance - as an Aussie friend described it to me. I mean, it’s a line dance.

For years, She Can’t Love You was a lost classic, played only by crate-digging DJs and enthusiasts.

Funk, disco and rap seem to be the background music in many places I go in France—whether it’s bars, cafés, or even small magazine shops. Maybe it’s where I go in Nantes, but even in a tiny shop where a woman was giving me a hard time about my pronunciation, Barry White was playing in the background.

People lecturing me about French really never happens to me, btw - that’s why it was so weird when it did happen.

But it made for a really strange soundtrack for the moment & I almost pointed it out because it felt so out of place, but then I wondered—can I really claim Barry White like that?

Plus, you’re being an asshole right now - how I am going to explain that the music is making this moment even more weird. But whatever.

Before I could figure it out, she was launching into an impromptu French lesson, and I was definitely not in the mood to talk about anything with her.

Disco, the Muzak of France?

This is part of what makes France such an interesting place for music. I feel like I am seeing genres that I have heard for most of my life in a different way - it’s like the language is different, even musically, even about American music.

Unlike the U.S., where disco was purposefully killed off after the infamous "Disco Demolition Night" in 1979, France never abandoned it. Funk and disco kept going in the alternative musical reality of French culture, (while hiphop and DJs kept interest going in the US) influencing everything from mainstream pop to the electronic music explosion of the ‘90s and 2000s. French DJs and producers, especially with house and nu-disco, have kept it going - I’ve got some newer tracks to check out below.

But beside weddings and the kind of Hijack Disco of certain political rallies (et tu, YMCA?), I can’t remember the last time I’d heard a disco song played out somewhere in the US.

A bit of modern French disco.

Disco has gone through multiple resurgences in France, with about one a decade since the 1970s.

Check out Dabeull and then Breakbot from the recent wave, still called Nu Disco, like Nu Metal (and the Big 4 of Nu Metal: Korn, Limp Bizkit, System of a Down and Linkin Park), it could use a nu name. I just call it Disco.

Besides the name, Nu Disco has nu-thing in common with Nu Metal.

All of the following are pretty wonderful artists - you can go really deep in all of their catalogs.

Dabeull - You & I

Breakbot - Get Lost

A fun little video. I like how at least one person gets punched to the beat.

L’imperatrice is another personal favorite:

They were kind of wonderful and they made great videos. The lead singer (Flore Benguigui) left the band just a few months ago, citing stress and harassment from the other members of the band and the industry in general.

The other band members disagreed, but she’s probably right. I’ll look for her for whatever she’s doing next.

They tell weird little stories with their videos that seem to have nothing to do with the songs, ever - and I like that.