Raindrops stop falling as Sacha Distel dies aged 71

Sacha Distel, the French singer who won the hearts of the British public with hits such as "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" has died aged 71.

Sacha Distel, the French singer who won the hearts of the British public with hits such as "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" has died aged 71.

The crooner, who worked with some of the greatest names in the music industry including Dizzy Gillespie, Dionne Warwick, Liza Minnelli and Quincy Jones, died yesterday in the south of France. He had been ill for some time.

The nephew of bandleader Ray Ventura, Distel was born in Paris in 1933 and started playing the piano at the age of five. He went on to join the school band and began his professional musical career as a jazz guitarist when he was 16.

In the Fifties, he was part of the St Germain des Prés scene, accompanying Juliette Greco, muse to the Paris existentialists, on the guitar. His early pop songs included "Les scoubidous" and "Oh quelle nuit" (Oh What A Night).

He won a string of accolades in this period, including being named best guitarist by Jazz Hot magazine, and went on to star in the French TV show Guitars et copains (Guitars and pals), which turned into the Sacha Show .

By the 1960s he was a household name - even receiving a mention in Peter Sarstedt's famous ballad "Where Do You Go To My Lovely?" In 1970, his cover version of "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" spent 33 weeks in the British pop charts.

Distel, who was the recipient of France's highest civilian honour, the Legion d'Honneur, also enjoyed an acting career, appearing in films including Louis Malle's comedy Zazie in the Subway .

Considered so good-looking he was said to make women swoon, Distel had a relationship with Brigitte Bardot in the 1960s.

He was married for 40 years to Francine Breaud, a former French ski champion with whom he has two adult sons Laurent and Julien. The couple divided their time between Paris, St Tropez and a chalet in the French Alps.

In the Second World War Distel's Jewish mother Andre, a member of the French Resistance, was arrested in Vichy France. His Russian Orthodox father Leon sent him to a Catholic college and ensured that he was baptised to avoid the same fate as his mother. Happily, at the end of the war the family was reunited, but Distel never forgot the horror of his mother's enforced absence.

The singer continued working until the very end, completing his last album earlier this year. When I Fall In Love included jazz songs and duets with Warwick and Minnelli.

In 1999 he was recruited to play the part of Billy Flynn, the hotshot lawyer in the West End version of the musical Chicago . Distel had kept up a demanding schedule of concerts and public appearances into his seventies, although in May he was forced to pull out of a jazz and guitar festival in Ayrshire, Scotland, after being taken to hospital.

His record company, Universal Music France, said yesterday that he would be buried in private, according to his last wishes.