SERGE GAINSBOURG AND JANE BIRKIN - “Je T’Aime…Moi Non Plus”
(#277, 11th October 1969)
Within Gainsbourg’s career this sounds to me like a stopping point between the sharp pop songs he was writing for himself and others in the 60s and the more drawn-out, high-concept records he made in the 70s: “Je T’Aime”s bass-heavy langour could be a practise run for bits of 1971’s terrific Histoire De Melody Nelson. If it wasn’t for the bass, in fact, “Je T’Aime” would be a pretty dire record - neither the somewhat prissy string arrangement or the soft-focus blur of the organ have aged that well, but the bass makes the song work as an insistent slow dance.
Precious few of its ‘69 listeners would have worried much about Gainsbourg’s career (though rather more would have cared about slow dances) - in the wider pop world he was just an archetypal filthy Frenchman, one enthusiastically living up to that archetype by debauching a fluttering English rose. Actually Birkin’s performance is much better than Serge’s - he is on gravelly seducer autopilot, whereas she gets the harder job of coming on record while still carrying the tune (her stabbed “viens!” and “reines!” at the end show how well she does it).
Few foreign language songs get to number one in Britain - this one was helped by radio ban controversy and a bottleneck in the single’s availability. But foreign language hits in general weren’t unheard of in the 1960s - Eurovision winners in whatever language tended to do alright, for instance. In the case of “Je T’Aime”, the language barrier must have helped sales by making the track more viable as a romantic record, as well as preserving its porno mystique. 5
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blount on September 25th, 2006
o you’re nuts - this is at minimum an 8!
FT's rosie on September 25th, 2006
Was this the first record to get to number one largely through tabloid notoriety? Not that I don’t think this has any other merits - I too would give it a higher mark. It’s a good smoocher and it’s genuinely teetering on the fine edge between eroticism and pornography (and manages to stay just on the right side), so it’;s exactly right for the teenager on tghe brink of discovering sex for the first time.
The BBC didn’t play it of course - although I recall that they did play an expurgated version without the naughty bits - but Radio Luxembourg did. (Have we had a discursion on the importance of Radio Luxembourg, especially earlier in the decade?)
FT's Tom on September 25th, 2006
Probably yes, Rosie! There had been records banned before but I don’t think a huge fuss was made over them.
The BBC probably played the instrumental version by the magnificently named Sounds Nice Orchestra.
I love pretty much every other Gainsbourg record from this period - “Sous Le Soleil Exactement” and “69 Annee Erotique” are both (I think) much better than this.
Marcello Carlin on September 25th, 2006
As is the original ‘68 “Je T’Aime” with Brigitte Bardot, which didn’t get released for 20 years since Bardot was understandably worried about jealousy on the part of her then husband; everything in this version is magnified, echoed and refracted so that it sounds like a hymn (and the real precursor to “Moments In Love”). Bardot is experienced, Birkin the ingenue.
But I do like the Birkin version because there is a vulnerability which goes beyond the raincoat brigade who undoubtedly helped take the record to number one…it is worth noting that Philips didn’t even consider giving any other Gainsbourg record a British release at this stage.
That having been said, Philips (or, strictly speaking, Fontana) got cold feet after the Whitehouse brigade had their say, and quickly sold the UK rights to indie label Major Minor (the Dubliners, Karen “Nobody’s Child” Young). Availability overlapped, which meant that the same recording on two different labels appeared in the chart simultaneously in separate positions (the Fontana one dropped from 2 to 16, and the Major Minor one went straight in at 3, and topped the chart the following week).
“Je T’Aime” is if I’m not mistaken the first foreign language single to top the UK singles chart. And also Serge’s only British hit of any size (it returned to the Top 40 on reissue in 1974, and let’s not mention the regrettable “comedy” versions by Frankie Howerd & June Whitfield, or by the dreaded Judge Dread, the latter going top ten in the summer of ‘75).
That having been said, the Birkin version is still absolutely gorgeous, and has never sounded dirty to my ears. Because of the Bardot version and the weeks I could only give it one mark - 9 1/2.
FT's Tom on September 25th, 2006
The list of cover versions on Wikipedia is a gateway into a land of nightmare - BRIAN MOLKO???!!!
Marcello Carlin on September 25th, 2006
Yeah, that was on the Trash Palace album from about three years ago. Not a bad record, but Molko’s version was ill-advised.
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on September 25th, 2006
maybe skidmore and i shd do this in karaoke instead of tatu
Marcello Carlin on September 25th, 2006
Possibly not in the Rene And Yvette Out Of Allo Allo style.
FT's Martin Skidmore on September 25th, 2006
I’m on for that, Mark - who gets to be Jane?
Chris Brown on September 25th, 2006
The Sounds Nice Orchestra called their version ‘Love At First Sight’, which is not the most accurate translation I’ve ever seen.
I really don’t know what I think of this record any more, so while I’m deciding who knows what the connection is between Serge Gainsbourg and Osama Bin Laden? Ha.
FT's Doctor Mod on September 26th, 2006
All of this is very interesting, as I’ve never seen an intelligent discussion of this disc. As far as I know, it was never NEVER played on US radio, at least not in 1969. Strange thing about the US–the American public is simultaneously obsessed with sex and frightened of it. Add the French language to it and, well, surely it must be a threat to our “cultural purity.”
I knew that there was a lot of controversy in the UK about “Je T’Amie,” but I didn’t hear it myself until several decades later. At this late date, it strikes me as nothing to get upset about, even if it seems rather redolent of the soundtracks from those “soft porn” films from the early 70s that, by today’s standards, are rather quaint and hardly pornographic.
FT's CarsmileSteve on September 26th, 2006
Chris, i imagine Whitney Houston would be the connection.
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on September 26th, 2006
je t’aime… macgyver non plus
DavidM on September 26th, 2006
9
Mark Grout on September 27th, 2006
The Birkin version was way better than the Bardot version.
English Translations: The Anita / nick cave translation (well pronounced), and the recent Chan Marshall (lesbo) one.
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on September 27th, 2006
the skidmore/sinker version will be better still mark! oh yes!! yes I said yes I will yes
Marcello Carlin on September 27th, 2006
not in my name
Chris Brown on September 30th, 2006
Full marks for spotting the connection, Steve. If I may call you that.
Incidentally, this record also points up one of the distinctions between the UK & US charts - because of the way the American chart (at least, the Hot 100) is calculated something like this that wasn’t on the radio could never get to the very top. Presumably this is also part of the reason why ‘The Ballad Of John & Yoko’ wasn’t a US Number One. This is also something of a victory for low educational standards, I suppose, because I presume most of the people who bought this bought into the supposed sexiness and didn’t pick up on the sarcasm in the lyrics.
Also, I remember about 15 years ago Radio 1 thought it would be a good idea to get a series of well-known comedians to record hour-long shows for Saturday afternoons. Angus Deayton’s effort included a skit where he offered a supposed running translation of the track in self-consciously stuffy English “I should like to permeate you… between your fetlocks”
Thierry Follain on October 11th, 2006
Well, well, an interesting and expert point of view about the world sexual revolution’s hymn (4 millions copies sold, I guess)- but not in the States -. I agree it’s some kind of a frontier in Gainsbourg’s career, altogether with the great “Melody nelson” album. It’s probably the heaviest success in both Gainsbourg and Birkin’s career, as they were only at the dawn of their relationship and their common work about movies, photos and songs, the latest only ending with Gainsbourg’s death in 1992. This song is still known all over the world. It was probably more accurate for Gainsbourg to sing it with the “ingenue” Birkin than with Bardot. I think in France, we have a different connection with this song, as for us, this couple’s story, which artistically ran after their break-up, is very popular. We know and often like the following albums and songs written and sung by Gainsbourg and/or Birkin (still on international tour with her show “Arabesque”). In fact, Jane Birkin is a strange case of a “foreign-born-national icon”. If you would made any poll in the streets of France about her, you would get incredible love-rates. So, for us, frenchmen and women, “Je t’aime moi non plus” is just the beginning of an intense (even if media-conscious) and endly nostalgic passion. So french, so romantic !!!
Billy Smart on September 13th, 2007
As part of the BBC Radio 4 ‘Sexual Landmarks’ season, Paul Gambaccini was talking about this record on Front Row last night, if any Popular readers are interested in listening.
He suggested that Americans had to wait until 1973 for their first controversial orgasm hit - ‘Pillow Talk’ by Sylvia. I’ve never heard that, but instict tells me that it probably isn’t as good as Je T’Aime’ - or Donna Summer or Lil’ Louis, come to that.
Marcello Carlin on September 14th, 2007
It’s rather good, actually (and the Sylvia was the same Sylvia Robinson of Sylvia and Mickey who subsequently went on to found Sugarhill Records, and DEFINITELY not the Sylvia who tormented us for most of 1974 with “Y Viva Es Bleeding Pana”), and not at all tacky. However, that didn’t stop Radio 1 banning it, in tandem with the collected works of Judge Dread.
Where does this leave “Wild Thing,” though?
César M. González on September 18th, 2007
Je t’aime sure brings back memories of my college French class at East Los Angeles College in 1971. A beautiful work of violins, and organ, not just the sexual stuff. But everyone in French class wanted to know what they were saying !