Lost Loves

Albumbeschreibung

Although this is credited to Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot, and although the pair did some musical collaborations, be aware that this is not a collection of Gainsbourg-Bardot duets. In fact, not everything here is by either Gainsbourg or Bardot, though much of it is. Instead it's a rather awkward mix of early-'60s material either by Gainsbourg, by Bardot, used in a film in which Bardot acted, or from an album with an even more tenuous Bardot connection. Certainly the first ten of the disc's 30 tracks are the ones of most value, as they comprise the whole of Serge Gainsbourg's third album, 1961's L'Étonnant Serge Gainsbourg. The idiosyncrasy and eccentricity that would draw many fans of subsequent generations to his work is only mildly present. But it's still a nice set of gawkily ingratiating tunes with various early-'60s period settings, whether nightclub jazz (the noirish "Les Amours Perdues" is a highlight), sentimental French folk, calypso, or even generic teen idol-type rock ("Le Rock de Nerval" and "Le Sonnet D'Arvers"). The material from the album is followed by three fairly good covers of songs that appeared on the LP, one by Isabelle Aubret and two by Jean-Claude Pascal.
The Bardot-related cuts that take up more than half the CD begin with a track from a 1961 Sonorama magazine flexidisc on which she sings to the accompaniment of a sole acoustic guitar. According to a blurb on the back of the CD, that and the four that follow -- from a 1961 French New Year's Eve TV special -- contain the earliest recordings of Bardot singing, though on one, "On the Sunny Side of the Street," she merely plays rhythm guitar. Bardot's ingénue charm makes up for lack of conventional chops on these, though the songs from the television program are pretty lightweight vaudevillian jazz. Then we have three instrumental mambo and cool jazz selections (with musical participation from Bardot) from the soundtrack of a 1961 Roger Vadim film in which she starred, La Bride Sur Le Cou. Closing the CD are nine tracks from Pete Rugolo & His Orchestra's 1960 project Behind Brigitte Bardot (Cool Sounds from Her Hot Scenes), inspired by the music heard in her sexiest movie scenes, though the liner notes do not contain specific information about it. It's not bad if you like soundtrack jazz to those kind of movies, but the Bardot connection gets rather slight here. Slight too are the liner notes, with some general Bardot/Gainsbourg info but not much in particular about the music on this CD, failing even to observe that the Behind Brigitte Bardot selections include an obscure early Burt Bacharach-Hal David composition, "The Night Heaven Fell."

© Richie Unterberger /TiVo