Série Chouchou single covers
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#1, Percy Sledge – “When A Man Loves A Woman” / “Love Me Tender”
Série Chouchou is the name of a French series of 7″ records with songs by artists from Warner, Reprise, Elektra, Atlantic, and Chrysalis, distributed by WEA. Between 1973 and 1975, a total of thirty records were released, with musical styles ranging from soul (Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding) and rock ’n’ roll (Fats Domino) to hard rock (Iron Butterfly, Alice Cooper).
Graphicolor in Nanterre printed each sleeve in two colors, with some releases being made available in alternative color variants. The artist/band name is always set in all caps, and the song titles (mostly) in all lowercase characters.
The typeface may look familiar, and yet this is the first time it’s being featured on Fonts In Use. Its name is Roc. Designer Albert Boton drew it for French phototype company Hollenstein. I don’t know when exactly Roc was made. The earliest showing I’m aware of is as Hollenstein Roc in a Photo-Lettering brochure from 1964. In 1963, British dry transfer manufacturer Letraset released Compacta. It seems likely that the folks at Hollenstein saw Compacta and asked Boton to come up something similar for phototypesetting. But maybe it’s the other way around and Roc came first?
In any case, such a tight-setting bold condensed sans was very much in vogue at the time: Schmalfette Grotesk started to become popular in the late 1950s, and other manufacturers responded to the trend: Haas and Weber revamped their old designs as Inserat-Grotesk and Neue Aurora VIII, respectively. Ludwig & Mayer issued Permanent Headline in 1964, Stephenson Blake brought out Impact in 1965, and Mergenthaler Linotype followed up with Helvetica Compressed in 1966.
Roc (top; here Photoscript’s version named “Ascona Grotesk (Roc)” from a 1965 catalog, scan courtesy of Stephen Coles, CC BY-NC-SA) compared to Compacta (bottom; here Bitstream’s digitization with decreased tracking)
Roc and Compacta are similar, but there are also a couple of differences, see for example the modulation in A M N V W. The construction of several of Roc’s glyphs like a g y G Q is closer to that of Univers (1957/1958). No surprise: Boton started his career at Deberny & Peignot, working under Frutiger.
Roc wasn’t kept exclusive to Hollenstein in Paris. In addition to Photo-Lettering in New York, it was also carried by Photoscript in London, where it went under the name Ascona Grotesk (Roc). By 1974, Hollenstein had the design extended to six styles; maigre (caps only), normal, italique, noir, noir italique, and noir coupé (stencil). It did fairly well for a while, but due to its limited availability, the design fell into oblivion and became overshadowed by Compacta. To my knowledge, Roc was never digitized.
The Série Chouchou logo features caps from Normande, set on a circle. The number is in Helvetica Bold for the first few releases, changing to the more compact Helvetica Inserat (or Helvetica schmalfett?) for two-digit numbers.
Posted as part of a series that pays tribute to Albert Boton, one of the preeminent French type designers of the past sixty years. Albert Boton died on July 20, 2023, at the age of 91.
#2, Jethro Tull – “Bourée” / “Locomotive Breath”
#3, Sonny & Cher – “I Got You Babe” / “The Beat Goes On”
#4, Delaney & Bonnie – “Miss Ann” / “Free the People”
#4, back cover
#5, Wilson Pickett – “In The Midnight Hour” / “Land Of 1000 Dances”
#6, Otis Redding – “Satisfaction” / “Respect”
#7, Ray Charles – “What I’d Say” / “Hallelujah, I Love Her So”
#8, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – “Woodstock” / “Carry On”
#9, Aretha Franklin – “Respect” / “I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)”. The wide light sans is Univers 33, see also #19.
![#10, Vanilla Fudge – “You Keep Me Hanging’ [sic!] On, Part 1 / Part 2”](https://fiu-original.b-cdn.net/fontsinuse.com/use-images/N198/198546/198546.jpeg?filename=10.jpg)
#10, Vanilla Fudge – “You Keep Me Hanging’ [sic!] On, Part 1 / Part 2”
![#11, Iron Butterfly – “In A Gadda Da Vida” / “[In] Iron Butterfly Theme”](https://fiu-original.b-cdn.net/fontsinuse.com/use-images/N198/198547/198547.jpeg?filename=11.jpg)
#11, Iron Butterfly – “In A Gadda Da Vida” / “[In] Iron Butterfly Theme”
#12, Graham Nash – “Chicago” / “Military Madness”
#13, Bread – “Baby I’m A Want You” / “The Guitar Man”
#14, The Doors – “Light My Fire” / “Hello, I Love You”
#15, Norman Greenbaum – “Spirit In The Sky” / “Canned Ham”
#16, Routers – “Let’s Go” / “Mashy”. The second song name is added in Helvetica Bold.
#17, Alice Cooper – “School’s Out” / “Elected”
#19, Peter, Paul & Mary – “Blowing In The Wind” / “If I Had A Hammer (The Hammer Song)”. The wide light sans is Univers 33, se also #9.
#18, The Everly Brothers – “Cathy’s Clown” / “Lucille”
#20, Myriam Makeba – “Pata Pata” / “Malayisha”
#21, Otis Redding – “(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay” / “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long”
#22, Fats Domino – “Lady Madonna” / “I’m Ready”
#23, The Bar-Kays – “Soul Finger” / “Knucklehead”
#24, Sam & Dave – “Hold On, I’m Coming” / “Soul Man”
#25, Ben E. King – “Stand By Me” / “Spanish Harlem”
#26, Booker T & The MG’s – “Green Onions” / “Get Ready”
#27, Arthur Conley – “Sweet Soul Music” / “Funky Street”
#28, Percy Sledge – “Warm And Tender Love” / “My Special Prayer”
#29, King Curtis – “Memphis Soul Stew” / “Teasin’”
#30, Wilson Pickett – “Funky Broadway” / “Mustang Sally”
