Poor Franceit is blessed with three immense schools of popular songwriters. There is the rock-twist crowd, which follows the spiritual guidance of Elvis Presley. Chubby Checker and a Gallic hero named Johnny Hallyday. and spawns an army of combos with names like Les Chats Sauvages. There are "The Defenders of French Music." troubadour-poets like Georges Brassens and Leo Ferre who sing their verses to naughty café melodies. And there is Charles Aznavour.
All by himself. Aznavour, 38, five-foot-four. 112 pounds and esthetically alone, is the biggest of the three. As composer, lyricist...