Joe dassin parents: Dassin was born in New York City, the son of American film director Jules Dassin (1911–2008) and violinist Béatrice Launer (1913–1994), who studied with the British violinist Harold Berkely at the Juilliard School of Music after graduating from a Hebrew High School in the Bronx. Dassin’s father was a film director, and his mother was a violinist. In addition to his father’s Russian-Jewish and Polish-Jewish ancestry, his maternal grandfather was an Austrian-Jewish immigrant who came in New York with his family when he was eleven years old.
In 2020, several renowned musicians paid homage to Joe Dassin’s songs in a covers/tribute album titled toi, Joe Dassin, which was released by EMI Music Publishing. The album peaked at #44 on the French SNEP Albums list, which is a measure of its popularity. It also charted in Belgium, where it reached #26 on the country’s Ultratop albums francophone list and #4 on the Swiss Hitparade Albums chart, among other positions. On the album, Ycare, Axelle Red, Les Frangines, Trois Cafés Gourmands, Patrick Fiori, Lola Dubini, Jérémy Frerot, Tibz, Aldebert, Kids United Nouvelle Génération, Carla, Jonathan Dassin, Madame Monsieur, Julien Dassin, La Deryves, 21 Juin Le Duo, Camélia Jordana, and others performed Joe Dassin songs in their own interpretations.
He spent the early part of his youth in New York City and afterward in Los Angeles. However, when his father was placed on the Hollywood blacklist in 1950, he and his family were forced to relocate from one location to another throughout Europe.
After relocating to France, Dassin began working as a technician for his father and began appearing in films as a supporting actor, including three films directed by his father, among them Topkapi (1964), in which he played the part of Josef. In 1964, he met Valentin Teboul in Paris, where they collaborated on the renowned Champs-Elysées Song.
Dassin secured a recording contract with CBS Records on December 26, 1964, making him the first French vocalist to be signed to an American recording company.
Dassin tied the knot with Maryse Massiéra in Paris on January 18, 1966. On the 12th of September 1973, their son Joshua was born two and a half months early and died five days after his birth. Joe fell into a severe depression as a result of his sorrow. Despite their best attempts, they were unable to save their marriage. In 1977, one year after relocating to their newly constructed house in Feucherolles, a suburb of Paris, they separated and divorced.
Dassin tied the knot with Christine Delvaux in Cotignac on January 14, 1978. Their first son, Jonathan, was born on September 14, 1978, and their second son, Julien, was born on March 22, 1980. They have two sons. Christine died in December of 1995, at the age of 39.
By the early 1970s, Dassin’s songs were at the top of the French music charts, and he had gained enormous popularity in the country. He sang songs in a variety of languages, including German, Spanish, Italian, and Greek, as well as French and English. “Les Champs-Élysées” (originally “Waterloo Road”) (1969), “Salut les amoureux” (originally “City of New Orleans”) (1973), “L’Été indien” (1975), “Et if tu n’existais pas” (1975), and ” toi” (1976) are some of his most popular songs (1976).
Dassin received his education at the International School of Geneva and the Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland, and he received his diploma from Grenoble University. As a result, Dassin relocated to the United States, where he studied at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, from 1957 to 1963, earning an undergraduate Hopwood Award for fiction in 1958 and a Bachelor of Arts in 1961, and a Master of Arts in 1963, both in Anthropology, as well as an undergraduate Hopwood Award for fiction in 1963.