All inducted songs
“Lindberg truly was an improvisation, with all of us around a piano at three in the morning, and with Péloquin having 100 flashes per minute."
Lindberg
  • Year Inducted: 2010
  • Written In: 1968
Songwriters
Robert Charlebois Songwriter
© Photo Credit Library & Archives Canada
Claude Péloquin Composer
Artists
Robert Charlebois
Dumas
Catherine Durand
Luck Merville
Fabienne Thibault
Louise Forestier
Lindberg was born from an improvisational musical set between Claude Péloquin, Louise Forestier, Pierre F. Brault and Robert Charlebois, after a bet. The song became a Quebecois anthem for an entire generation that grew up on the Beatles, Woodstock, Expo 67 and the Quiet Revolution.

The song was created one night of drinks amongst friends, who took inspiration from the wind of social and musical changes coming from the United States. Charlebois especially was highly influenced by his recent trips to California and the Caribbeans. Sophie Clément, Claude Péloquin’s muse, was also present and became the song’s “Sophie.” Louise Forestier remembered that “Lindberg truly was an improvisation, with all of us around a piano at three in the morning, and with Péloquin having 100 flashes per minute. I would do vocals and noises with my mouth.” And yet, this spontaneous improvisation between friends would forever change Quebec’s musical landscape.

The song Lindberg ended up defying the norms and influencing a great number of musicians, artists and songwriters at the time to mix up a more American sound with lyrics that were truer to Quebec’s reality. Lindberg left no one indifferent in Quebec, in Canada and even all over the world, where the song garnered a number of awards. Scandalous for some with its use of swear words and popular expressions, groundbreaking for others for its unique musical style, Lindberg won the Grand Prix du Festival de la chanson française in Spa, Belgium, and the Prix Félix-Leclerc at the Festival du disque, in 1969.

The song enabled Charlebois and Forestier to tour other Francophone countries, notably the Olympia de Paris. Lindberg was also one of the main songs that inspired the groundbreaking “L’Osstid’show”, in 1969, starring satirist and comedian Yvon Deschamps, Mouffe, Louise Forestier and the Quatuor de Jazz Libre du Québec. Just like Lindberg, “L’Osstid’show” also ended up shattering Quebec’s artistic and cultural conventions, by mixing together music, comedy and theatre.

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Lindberg (Robert Charlebois) - performed by Catherine Durand and Dumas
"Lindberg", written and composed by Claude Péloquin and CSHF inductee Robert Charlebois, was performed by Québecois vocalists Catherine Durand and Dumas at the 2010 CSHF Induction Ceremony.
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