Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg was the dirty old man of popular music; a French singer/songwriter and provocateur notorious for his voracious appetite for alcohol, cigarettes, and women, his scandalous, taboo-shattering output made him a legend in Europe but only a cult figure in America, where his lone hit "Je T'Aime...Moi Non Plus" stalled on the pop charts -- fittingly enough -- at number 69. Born Lucien Ginzberg in Paris on April 2, 1928, his parents were Russian Jews who fled to France following the events of the 1917 Bolshevik uprising. After studying art and teaching, he turned to painting before working as a bar pianist on the local cabaret circuit. Soon he was tapped to join the cast of the musical Milord L'Arsoille, where he reluctantly assumed a singing role; self-conscious about his rather homely appearance, Gainsbourg initially wanted only to carve out a niche as a composer and producer, not as a performer. Still, he made his recording debut in 1958 with the album Du Chant a la Une; while strong efforts like 1961's L'Etonnant Serge Gainsbourg and 1964's Gainsbourg Confidentiel followed, his jazz-inflected solo work performed poorly on the charts, although compositions for vocalists ranging from Petula Clark to Juliette Greco to Dionne Warwick proved much more successful. In the late '60s, he befriended the actress Brigitte Bardot, and later became her lover; with Bardot as his muse, Gainsbourg's lushly arranged music suddenly became erotic and delirious, and together, they performed a series of duets -- including "Bonnie and Clyde," "Harley Davidson," and "Comic Strip" -- celebrating pop culture icons. Gainsbourg's affair with Bardot was brief, but its effects were irrevocable: after he became involved with constant companion Jane Birkin, they recorded the 1969 duet "Je T'Aime...Moi Non Plus," a song he originally penned for Bardot complete with steamy lyrics and explicit heavy breathing. Although banned in many corners of the globe, it reached the top of the charts throughout Europe, and grew in stature to become an underground classic later covered by performers ranging from Donna Summer to Ray Conniff. Gainsbourg returned in 1971 with Histoire de Melody Nelson, a dark, complex song cycle which signalled his increasing alienation from modern culture: drugs, disease, suicide and misanthropy became thematic fixtures of his work, which grew more esoteric, inflammatory, and outrageous with each passing release. Although Gainsbourg never again reached the commercial success of his late-'60s peak, he remained an imposing and controversial figure throughout Europe, where he was both vilified and celebrated for his shocking behavior, which included burning 500 francs on a live television broadcast and recording a reggae version of the sacred "La Marseillaise." Gainsbourg also created a furor with the single "Lemon Incest," a duet with his daughter, the actress Charlotte Gainsbourg. In addition, he posed in drag for the cover of 1984's Love on the Beat, a collection of songs about male hustlers, and made sexual advances towards Whitney Houston on a live TV broadcast. Along with his pop music oeuvre, Gainsbourg scored a number of films, and also directed and appeared in a handful of features, most notably 1976's Je T'Aime...Moi Non Plus, which starred Birkin and Andy Warhol mainstay Joe Dallesandro. He died on March 2, 1991.© Jason Ankeny /TiVo Read more
Serge Gainsbourg was the dirty old man of popular music; a French singer/songwriter and provocateur notorious for his voracious appetite for alcohol, cigarettes, and women, his scandalous, taboo-shattering output made him a legend in Europe but only a cult figure in America, where his lone hit "Je T'Aime...Moi Non Plus" stalled on the pop charts -- fittingly enough -- at number 69.
Born Lucien Ginzberg in Paris on April 2, 1928, his parents were Russian Jews who fled to France following the events of the 1917 Bolshevik uprising. After studying art and teaching, he turned to painting before working as a bar pianist on the local cabaret circuit. Soon he was tapped to join the cast of the musical Milord L'Arsoille, where he reluctantly assumed a singing role; self-conscious about his rather homely appearance, Gainsbourg initially wanted only to carve out a niche as a composer and producer, not as a performer.
Still, he made his recording debut in 1958 with the album Du Chant a la Une; while strong efforts like 1961's L'Etonnant Serge Gainsbourg and 1964's Gainsbourg Confidentiel followed, his jazz-inflected solo work performed poorly on the charts, although compositions for vocalists ranging from Petula Clark to Juliette Greco to Dionne Warwick proved much more successful. In the late '60s, he befriended the actress Brigitte Bardot, and later became her lover; with Bardot as his muse, Gainsbourg's lushly arranged music suddenly became erotic and delirious, and together, they performed a series of duets -- including "Bonnie and Clyde," "Harley Davidson," and "Comic Strip" -- celebrating pop culture icons.
Gainsbourg's affair with Bardot was brief, but its effects were irrevocable: after he became involved with constant companion Jane Birkin, they recorded the 1969 duet "Je T'Aime...Moi Non Plus," a song he originally penned for Bardot complete with steamy lyrics and explicit heavy breathing. Although banned in many corners of the globe, it reached the top of the charts throughout Europe, and grew in stature to become an underground classic later covered by performers ranging from Donna Summer to Ray Conniff.
Gainsbourg returned in 1971 with Histoire de Melody Nelson, a dark, complex song cycle which signalled his increasing alienation from modern culture: drugs, disease, suicide and misanthropy became thematic fixtures of his work, which grew more esoteric, inflammatory, and outrageous with each passing release. Although Gainsbourg never again reached the commercial success of his late-'60s peak, he remained an imposing and controversial figure throughout Europe, where he was both vilified and celebrated for his shocking behavior, which included burning 500 francs on a live television broadcast and recording a reggae version of the sacred "La Marseillaise."
Gainsbourg also created a furor with the single "Lemon Incest," a duet with his daughter, the actress Charlotte Gainsbourg. In addition, he posed in drag for the cover of 1984's Love on the Beat, a collection of songs about male hustlers, and made sexual advances towards Whitney Houston on a live TV broadcast. Along with his pop music oeuvre, Gainsbourg scored a number of films, and also directed and appeared in a handful of features, most notably 1976's Je T'Aime...Moi Non Plus, which starred Birkin and Andy Warhol mainstay Joe Dallesandro. He died on March 2, 1991.
© Jason Ankeny /TiVo
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L'Homme à tête de chou
Serge Gainsbourg
French Music - Released by Universal Music Division Mercury Records on Jan 1, 1976
Discothèque Idéale QobuzEven tolerant music fans shudder inwardly at the mention of the concept album, a largely prog rock genre that spawned many of the greatest aesthetic i ...
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Initials B.B.
Serge Gainsbourg
French Music - Released by Universal Music Division Mercury Records on Jan 1, 1968
The Comic Strip compilation may be an ideal overview to Gainsbourg's pop oeuvre, but for those sick puppies interested in exploring his entire catalog ...
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Gainsbourg Confidentiel
Serge Gainsbourg
French Music - Released by Universal Music Division Mercury Records on Jan 1, 1963
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Comme un boomerang
Serge Gainsbourg
French Music - Released by Universal Music Division Mercury Records on Jan 1, 2011
Released to coincide with the 20th anniversary of his death in 1991, Best of Gainsbourg: Comme un Boomerang is a two-CD retrospective featuring 47 tra ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Histoire de Melody Nelson
Serge Gainsbourg
French Music - Released by Universal Music Division Mercury Records on Jan 1, 1971
Discothèque Idéale QobuzYou don't need to speak a word of French to understand Histoire de Melody Nelson -- one needs only to look at the front cover (with its nearly pornogr ...
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Live - Casino de Paris 1985 (Super Deluxe Edition) (Super Deluxe Edition / Live)
Serge Gainsbourg
French Music - Released by Universal Music Division Mercury Records on Oct 16, 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Vu de l'extérieur
Serge Gainsbourg
French Music - Released by Universal Music Division Mercury Records on Jan 1, 1973
Serge Gainsbourg's fascination with the noisier bodily functions has been well-documented, both by his biographers and by his own records. Who else, a ...
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Du chant à la une !
Serge Gainsbourg
French Music - Released by Universal Music Division Mercury Records on Jan 1, 1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
N°4
Serge Gainsbourg
French Music - Released by Universal Music Division Mercury Records on Jan 1, 1962
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Le Zénith de Gainsbourg (Live / 1989)
Serge Gainsbourg
French Music - Released by Universal Music Division Mercury Records on Jan 1, 1989
There aren't many other French singer/songwriters out there who can hold a candle to the legend that is...Gainsbourg. The late legend looms large in t ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
L'Essentiel Des Albums Studio
Serge Gainsbourg
French Music - Released by Universal Music Division Mercury Records on Jan 1, 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
N°2
Serge Gainsbourg
French Music - Released by Universal Music Division Mercury Records on Jan 1, 1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Enregistrement public au Théâtre Le Palace (Live)
Serge Gainsbourg
French Music - Released by Universal Music Division Mercury Records on Jan 1, 1980
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
L'étonnant Serge Gainsbourg (N°3)
Serge Gainsbourg
French Music - Released by Universal Music Division Mercury Records on Jan 1, 1961
As early as 1961, Serge Gainsbourg was one of the most extraordinary artists of the French pop scene, and during the first part of the '60s the croone ...
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
A La Maison de la Radio
Serge Gainsbourg
French Music - Released by Diggers Factory on Jun 22, 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Gainsbourg & The Revolutionaries (Super Deluxe Edition)
Serge Gainsbourg
French Music - Released by Universal Music Division Mercury Records on Jun 15, 2015
4F de Télérama16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Aux Armes Et Caetera
Serge Gainsbourg
French Music - Released by Universal Music Division Mercury Records on Jan 1, 1979
Qobuz RéférenceThis is one messed up set. Dig the fact that this is Serge Gainsbourg in dread beat and booze. Aux Armes et Cætera is literally Gainsbourg on the rock ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Madame Claude (Bande originale du film)
Serge Gainsbourg
Film Soundtracks - Released by Universal Music Division Mercury Records on May 11, 1977
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Aux armes et caetera
Serge Gainsbourg
French Music - Released by Universal Music Division Mercury Records on Jan 1, 1979
This is one messed up set. Dig the fact that this is Serge Gainsbourg in dread beat and booze. Aux Armes et Cætera is literally Gainsbourg on the rock ...
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Le Zenith De Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg
French Music - Released by Universal Music Division Mercury Records on Jan 1, 1989
Qobuz RéférenceThere aren't many other French singer/songwriters out there who can hold a candle to the legend that is...Gainsbourg. The late legend looms large in t ...
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
I Love Serge
Serge Gainsbourg
French Music - Released by Universal Music Division Mercury Records on Jan 1, 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo