Let the music play...

"While Boris Vian was working as artistic director for two record labels, Philips and then Fontana, he was approached by France Roche, who was then working for Amiot publishers, to write a book on a subject of his choice. Hesitant about the subject, but having received the advance, Boris Vian asked one of his former neighbours, the novelist Yves Gibeau, to launch a major investigation into variety criticism and to co-write the book. Gibeau sent a series of questionnaires to the most famous music-hall artists, but did not get further involved in the writing, and Boris Vian therefore wrote the book En avant la zizique... et par ici les gros sous alone, deciphering the workings of the world of song in a tone that was part pedagogical, part polemical."