his solo career in 1937, recording for Columbia, his first disc being "Je chante/Fleur bleue". The exuberant "Je chante" gave rise to the notion of Trenet as a "singing vagabond", a theme that appeared in a number of his early songs and films. He shot to stardom very quickly; as Jean Cocteau put it, when Trenet sang, "He was so young, so fresh that the bar yielded to a rustic decor, the projectors became the stiff branches of a cherry tree, the microphone a hollyhock, the piano a cow." World War II At the start of World War II, Trenet was called up. He was in barracks at Salon-de-Provence until he was demobilized in June 1940, when he moved back to Paris. There he performed at the Folies Bergère or at the Gaîté Parisienne (two famous cabarets) in front of a public often consisting of German officers and soldiers. The collaborationist press tried to compromise his name and published that "Trenet" was the anagram of "Netter" – a Jewish name. He was able to show his family tree to the authorities, proving that he had no Jewish origin. Like many other artists of the time, he chose to go on entertaining the occupying forces rather than sacrifice his career. He agreed, when asked by the Germans, to go and sing for the French prisoners-of-war in Germany. The Épuration légale ("legal purge"), the wave of official trials that followed the Liberation of France and the fall of the Vichy Regime, examined whether Trenet was guilty of collaboration but the inquiry resulted in a mere reprimand without any further consequences. After World War II After the end of hostilities, he moved to the United States where he lived for a few years and where he quickly became a success. After a few concerts at the Bagdad in New York City, Trenet became a big hit and was approached by Hollywood. He met Louis Armstrong and began a long-lasting friendship with Charlie Chaplin. On 14 September 1951, Trenet returned to Paris and made a comeback at the Théâtre de l'Étoile. He incorporated ten new songs into his act, including "De la fenêtre d'en haut" and "La Folle Complainte". In 1954 he performed at the Olympia music-hall in Paris for the first time. The following year he wrote the famous "Route nationale 7", a tribute to the introduction of paid holidays. In 1958, Trenet