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'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. 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. 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. 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. After studying art and teaching, he turned to painting before working as a bar pianist on the local cabaret circuit. 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.īorn 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.

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