Giraud began his career playing the harmonica with
Django Reinhardt's
jazz group, the
Quintette du Hot Club de France. In 1941, he was recruited by
Ray Ventura to play the guitar during Ventura's
big-band tour of South America. Six years later, he joined
Jacques Hélian's orchestra in scoring a series of
post-war romantic comedy films, including Georges Combert's 1951 feature,
Musique en tête. His song "
Dors, mon amour", performed by
André Claveau, won the
Eurovision Song Contest 1958. Giraud (with lyricist Pierre Cour) wrote the song "Gitans" ( "Les Gitans"). It was further translated into English by B. Guilgud (a.k.a. Guilgudo) and A. Gill and recorded by Corry Brokken.
Sergio Franchi recorded an English and Italian version (Italian lyrics by
Leo Chiosso) on his 1965 RCA album
Live at the Cocoanut Grove. Giraud also wrote the music for the songs "
Sous le ciel de Paris" in 1951 and "
Mamy Blue" in 1970. ==Selected filmography==