Lyrics | Artists | Johnny Hess

Johnny Hess

Swiss pianist and singer Johnny Hess is best known for the Charles & Johnny duo he formed with Charles Trenet, and for the name "zazou" in some of his songs. Born in Engelberg, Canton Obwalden, on December 31, 1915, he grew up in Levallois, France, where his parents settled in 1920, and studied at the École supérieure de commerce de Paris. Classically trained, he began playing the piano in cabarets in 1931, and the following year met Charles Trenet at the College Inn jazz club in Montparnasse. Their friendship soon blossomed into an artistic duo, named Charles & Johnny, who encha...