Where does this leave “Wild Thing,” though?

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.

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”

English Translations: The Anita / nick cave translation (well pronounced), and the recent Chan Marshall (lesbo) one.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?)