Born on March 18, 1908 in Paris, husband of Line Renaud, Loulou Gasté began his career in 1931 in Ray Ventura's orchestra, where he played guitar and banjo. He made a name for himself as a songwriter at the start of the Second World War. Passionate about jazz and Dixieland, he wrote "Avec son ukulélé" (1941) and "Elle était swing" for Jacques Pills, and "l'Âme au diable" for Léo Marjane (1943). Yves Montand asked for him, and in 1944 inherited "Luna Park", written with lyricist Jean Guigo, followed by "Battling Joe". Loulou Gasté also proposed music to texts written by a young, unknown woman, the journalist Françoise Giroud. He produced three hits: "Un par un vont les Indiens", "le Petit Chaperon rouge", sung by Lisette in 1944, and "Ce n'était pas original", sung by Jacqueline François. Author, composer and publisher, in 1945 he met Jacqueline Ray, known as "Mademoiselle from Armentières", a regular on the radio crochets of northern France. He gave her the name Line Renaud. In 1948, a song entitled "A la Maria Chapdelaine", for which he wrote the music (lyrics by Mireille Brocey), led to the success of "Ma cabane au Canada". Loulou Gasté composes songs for his wife, both funny ("Le Petit chien dans la vitrine") and happy ("Le Bal aux Baléares"), as well as for the cinema. " Pour toi", sung by Dario Moreno in André Decoin's Le Feu aux poudres, is plagiarized by an obscure Brazilian crooner, Moris Albert, and becomes "Feelings", an American music standard. After an eight-year legal battle in the U.S., Loulou Gasté won half a million dollars in damages and recognition of his song's authorship. He leaves behind the memory of a pleasant pillar of French chanson.
