Hugues Aufray
by Jason AnkenyThe music of French folk troubadour Hugues Aufray existed in stark opposition to the prevailing yé-yé sound that dominated pop charts in the mid-'60s. A disciple of Bob Dylan who regularly adapted his hero's songs into French, Aufray nevertheless proved a popular favorite whose own compositions, most notably "Santiano" and "Celine," quickly entered the mainstream vernacular. Born August 18, 1929, in the Parisian suburb of Neuilly sur Seine, Hughes spent much of his adolescence in a Dominican school in the south of France after the German occupation forced his family to flee their home. Following his parents' divorce, he relocated with his father to Madrid, returning to Paris in 1948 to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. To make ends meet, Aufray sang on the streets for spare change, eventually leaving school a year later to fulfill his military duty by serving a stint in the Alps as a member of the mountain infantry. Aufray spen...