EARLY YEARS
His father Aim� Fran�ois was French, and he worked on the Suez Canal, he was a strict man with his children, but he loved them.
His mother Lucia Mazzei Fran�ois (mainly called Chouffa) was Italian, and in comparison was much more relaxed with her children, and she was very close to Claude, in fact Claude later was to say that she was his best friend.
Claude had one sister, Marie-Jose born 28th August 1935, he called her Josette.
Claude's mother
When Claude was in school he was a very clever student. His mother was very musical, and sent Claude for piano lessons, his father wanted him to learn the violin, Claude wanted a dog at the time, so they agreed that if he had violin lessons, he could have the dog, but Claude's real first love musically was playing the drums. He was also very athletic, he won a running championship at school,and his trophy was presented by Colonel Nasser, and there was a big party afterwards.
On their return to France life was hard, as they had very little money, and for a short time Claude worked in a bank. His father became very ill, and Claude worked hard to provide money for food and medicine.
He started to play the drums with orchestra's in big hotels. He saw how the rich and famous lived, they left money tips on tables for the waitresses, that was for more than Claude earned for the night.
He went into the kitchens, and saw food on plates that was being wasted, so he put plastic bags in his suit pockets before he left home, and put the left over food in his pockets, to take home for his mother. Eventually he began to sing with the bands and earned a little more money. Claude decided to go to Paris to further his career.