Jean-Claude Petit is a French composer and arranger, born in Vaires-sur-Marne. After accompanying jazzmen in his childhood, Petit went to the Conservatoire de Paris, where he studied harmony and counterpoint. He did the string arrangements for Mink DeVille's Le Chat Bleu album, as well as orchestrating the backing parts to some French pop singles in the mid-to-late 1960s, including those of Erick Saint-Laurent and yé-yé girls Christine Pilzer and Monique Thubert.
In 1973 he composed La leçon de Michette. The song was popular in Italy due to its use in the soundtrack of a well-known Carosello from 1973 to 1976.
As a music ghostwriter for director Michel Magne, Petit did not get credit for his film scores until he was 36.
1979 saw his first major film soundtrack commission, but he had been releasing solo records at least a decade earlier, including at least four for the Chappell Music Library, as well as his album Chez Jean-Claude Petit, released in the early 1970s. In 1976 he collaborated with Pierre Delanoë, Toto Cutugno, Vito Pallavicini in a very popular and funky music for Mireille Mathieu called Ciao Bambino, Sorry.