Henri Salvador (18 July 1917 - 13 February 2008) was a French musician and singer credited with helping inspire both the bossa nova and the music video.

 His career spanned over seven decades, covering a wide pallet of music including jazz, cabaret, novelty, and early rock n’ roll. 

Salvador was born in Cayenne, French Guiana. His father, Clovis, and his mother, Antonine Paterne, daughter of a native Indian from the Caribbean, were both from Guadeloupe, France. He had a brother, André, and a sister, Alice.

He began his musical career as a guitarist accompanying other singers. He had learned the guitar by imitating Django Reinhardt's recordings, and was to work alongside him in the 1940s. Salvador recorded several songs written by Boris Vian with Quincy Jones as arranger. He played many years with Ray Ventura et Ses Collégiens where he used to sing, dance and even play comedy on stage, and made some appearances in great movies such as "Nous irons à Monte-Carlo (1950) " or "Nous irons à Paris" (Jean Boyer's film of 1949 with the Peters Sisters) or "Mademoiselle s'amuse" (1948). 

He is known to have recorded the first French rock and roll songs in 1956 written by Boris Vian and Michel Legrand Rock'n Roll Mops, Rock hoquet, Va t'faire cuire un oeuf, man and Dis-moi qu'tu m'aimes rock under the artist name of Henry Cording, (a play on words with Recording). Despite this historical aspect, he never ceased to claim that he disliked Rock and Roll and even refused to talk about this subject later on. 

Henri Salvador and his song Dans mon île (1957) was an influence on Antônio Carlos Jobim in formulating the Brazilian Bossa Nova style. Caetano Veloso, a famous Brazilian composer and singer, made Henri Salvador famous to Brazilian audiences with the song Reconvexo, in which he says "quem não sentiu o swing de Henri Salvador?" ("who hasn't felt the swing of Henri Salvador?")

In the 1960s, Salvador was the host of several popular television variety shows on French TV. In 1964 he scored a hit with Zorro est arrivé, which was inspired by The Coasters' U.S. hit Along Came Jones. He is also famous for his rich, catchy laugh, which is a theme in many of his humorous songs. In 1969, Henri Salvador recorded a variation of Mah Nà Mah Nà titled Mais non, mais non (But No, But No or Of Course Not, Of Course Not), with lyrics he had written in French to Piero Umiliani's music. He was among the first performers to set his songs to televised images, prompting some in France to call him the father of the music video. 

At age 70, Salvador was the voice-over of the crab Sebastian in the 1989 French dubbing of Disney's The Little Mermaid. Recordings of Embrasse La (Kiss the Girl) can be found on Youtube. Salvador discovered singers Keren Ann and Art Mengo. 

Henri continues to be popular today among French communities in Canada. In 2000, Virgin Records released a CD featuring popular hits like Jazz Mediterrannee which continues to receive regular air play. In 2002 his album Chambre Avec Vue sold over two million copies. In 2005, Henri Salvador was awarded the Brazilian Order of Cultural Merit, which he received from the acclaimed singer and Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil, in the presence of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for his influence on Brazilian culture, particularly on bossa nova, to whose invention he contributed. 

He was also a commander of the French Légion d'honneur and of the National Order of Merit. In 2007 he released "Reverence" on V2 Records which features Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso. He then went on to perform the track La Vie C'est La Vie from the album Reverence on the BBC program Later … With Jools Holland, which aired on 4 May 2007. 

Henri died of a ruptured aneurysm at his home in the early hours of 13 February 2008. He was 90 years of age.

(info edited from Wikipedia)