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Serge Gainsbourg

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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.


Serge Gainsbourg (born Lucien Ginsburg; French pronunciation: ​[sɛʁʒ ɡɛ̃sbuʁ]; 2 April 1928 – 2 March 1991) was a French singer, songwriter, pianist, film composer, poet, painter, screenwriter, writer, actor and director. Regarded as one of the most important figures in French popular music, he was renowned for his often provocative and scandalous releases, as well as his diverse artistic output, which embodied genres ranging from jazz, mambo, world, chanson, pop and yé-yé, to rock and roll, progressive rock, reggae, electronic, disco, new wave and funk. Gainsbourg's varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize although his legacy has been firmly established and he is often regarded as one of the world's most influential popular musicians.

His lyrical work incorporated a vast amount of clever word play to hoodwink the listener, often for humorous, provocative, satirical or subversive reasons. Common types of word play in his songs include mondegreen, onomatopoeia, rhyme, spoonerism, dysphemism, paraprosdokian and pun. Through the course of his career, Gainsbourg wrote over 500 songs, which have been covered more than a thousand times by a wide range of artists. Since his death, Gainsbourg's music has reached legendary stature in France. He has also gained a cult following in the English-speaking world, with numerous artists influenced by his arrangements.

^ Ginsburg is sometimes spelled Ginzburg in the media, including print encyclopedias and dictionaries. However, Ginsburg is the name engraved on Gainsbourg's grave, and "Lucien Ginsburg" is the name by which Gainsbourg is referred to, as a performer, in the Sacem catalog [1] (along with "Serge Gainsbourg" as the author/composer/adaptor)^ allmusic Biography^ Obituary Variety, 11 March 1991.^ Ankeny, Jason. "Serge Gainsbourg – Music Biography, Credits and Discography". AllMusic. Retrieved 2012-11-10. ^ Simmons, Sylvie (2 February 2001). "An extract from Serge Gainsbourg: A Fistful of Gitanes by Sylvie Simmons". The Guardian. ^ 2003年4月21日 (月). "The 100 Greatest Artists – No. 62". Hmv.co.jp. Retrieved 25 January 2011. ^ fr:Liste des chansons de Serge Gainsbourg^ fr:Reprises des chansons de Serge Gainsbourg


Biography1.1 Early work1.2 The 1970s1.3 Final years1.4 Film work1.5 Writing


Born in Paris, France, Gainsbourg was the son of Jewish Russian migrants, Joseph Ginsburg (28 December 1898, in Kharkov, Ukraine – 22 April 1971) and Olga (née Bessman; 1894 – 16 March 1985), who fled to Paris after the 1917 Russian Revolution. Joseph Ginsburg was a classically trained musician whose profession was playing the piano in cabarets and casinos; he taught his children, Gainsbourg and his twin sister Liliane to play the piano.

Gainsbourg's childhood was profoundly affected by the occupation of France by Germany in World War II. The identifying yellow star Jews were required to wear became a symbol and haunted Gainsbourg and which in later years he was able to transmute into creative inspiration. During the occupation, the Jewish Ginsburg family was able to make their way from Paris to Limoges, traveling under false papers. Limoges was in the Zone libre under the administration of the collaborationist Vichy government and still a perilous refuge for Jews. After the war, Gainsbourg obtained work teaching music and drawing in a school outside of Paris, in Mesnil-Le-Roi. The school was set up under the auspices of local rabbis, for the orphaned children of murdered deportees. Here Gainsbourg heard the accounts of Nazi persecution and genocide, stories that resonated for Gainsbourg far into the future. Before he was 30 years old, Gainsbourg was a disillusioned painter but earned his living as a piano player in bars.

Gainsbourg changed his first name to Serge, feeling that this was representative of his Russian background and because, as Jane Birkin relates: "Lucien reminded him of a hairdresser's assistant." He chose Gainsbourg as his last name, in homage to the English painter Thomas Gainsborough, whom he admired.

He married Elisabeth "Lize" Levitsky on 3 November 1951 and divorced in 1957. He married a second time on 7 January 1964, to Françoise-Antoinette "Béatrice" Pancrazzi (b. 28 July 1931), with whom he had two children: a daughter named Natacha (b. 8 August 1964) and a son, Paul (born in spring 1968). He divorced Béatrice in February 1966.

In late 1967 he had a short but ardent love affair with Brigitte Bardot, to whom he dedicated the song and album Initials BB.

In mid-1968 Gainsbourg fell in love with the younger English singer and actress Jane Birkin, whom he met during the shooting of the film Slogan. Their relationship lasted over a decade. In 1971 they had a daughter, the actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg. Although many sources state that they were married, according to their daughter Charlotte this was not the case. Birkin left Gainsbourg in 1980.

Birkin remembers the beginning of her affair with Gainsbourg: he first took her to a nightclub, then to a transvestite club and afterwards to the Hilton hotel where he passed out in a drunken stupor. Birkin left Gainsbourg when pregnant with her third daughter Lou by the film director Jacques Doillon.

His last partner was Bambou (Caroline Paulus, grandniece of German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus of Stalingrad fame). In 1986, they had a son, Lucien (known as Lulu).

Early work[edit]

His early songs were influenced by Boris Vian and were largely in the vein of old-fashioned chanson. Very early, however, Gainsbourg began to move beyond this and experiment with a succession of musical styles: jazz early on, pop in the 1960s, funk, rock and reggae in the 1970s and electronica in the 1980s.

Many of his songs contained themes with a morbid or sexual twist in them. An early success, "Le Poinçonneur des Lilas", describes the day in the life of a Paris Métro ticket man, whose job is to stamp holes in passengers' tickets. Gainsbourg describes this chore as so monotonous, that the man eventually thinks of putting a hole into his own head and being buried in another.

By the time the yéyés arrived in France, Gainsbourg was 32 years old and was not feeling very comfortable: he spent much time with Jacques Brel or Juliette Greco but the public and critics rejected him, mocking his prominent ears and nose. During this period, Gainsbourg began working with Greco, a collaboration that lasted throughout the 'Left Bank' period culminating in the song La Javanaise in the fall of 1962.

He performed a few duets in 1964 with the artist Philippe Clay, with whom he shared some resemblance. Around this time, Gainsbourg met Elek Bacsik and Michel Gaudry and asked them to make a record with him. This would become Confidentiel, which exuded a modern jazz aesthetic that pleased Gainsbourg, despite knowing that such a sound would not allow him access to success. The album sold only 1,500 copies. The decision was taken right upon leaving the studio: "I'll get into hack work and buy myself a Rolls". Still, his next album, Gainsbourg Percussions, inspired by the rhythms and melodies of Miriam Makeba and Babatunde Olatunji, was a world away from the yéyé wave, on the scene which was to become a key to the Gainsbourg fortune.

More success began to arrive when, in 1965, his song Poupée de cire, poupée de son was the Luxembourg entry in the Eurovision Song Contest. Performed by French teen and charming singer France Gall, it won first prize. The song was recorded in English as "A Lonely Singing Doll" by British teen idol Twinkle.

His next song for Gall, Les Sucettes (Lollipops), caused a scandal in France: Gainsbourg had written the song with double-meanings and strong sexual innuendo of which the singer was apparently unaware when she recorded it. Whereas Gall thought that the song was about a girl enjoying lollipops, it was really about oral sex. The controversy arising from the song, although a big hit for Gall, threw her career off-track in France for several years.

Gainsbourg arranged other Gall songs and LPs that were characteristic of the late 1960s psychedelic styles, among them Gall's 1968 album. Another one of Serge's songs Boum Bada Boum, was entered by Monaco in the 1967 contest, sung by Minouche Barelli; it came fifth. He also wrote hit songs for other artists, such as Comment Te Dire Adieu for Françoise Hardy.

In 1969, he released Je t'aime... moi non plus, which featured explicit lyrics and simulated sounds of female orgasm. The song appeared that year on an LP, Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg. Originally recorded with Brigitte Bardot, it was released with his future girlfriend Birkin when Bardot backed out. While Gainsbourg declared it the "ultimate love song", it was considered too "hot"; the song was censored or banned from public broadcast in numerous countries and in France even the toned-down version was suppressed. The Vatican made a public statement citing the song as offensive. Despite (or perhaps because of) the controversy, it sold well and charted within the top ten in many European countries.

The 1970s[edit]

Histoire de Melody Nelson was released in 1971. This concept album, produced and arranged by Jean-Claude Vannier, tells the story of a Lolita-esque affair, with Gainsbourg as the narrator. It features prominent string arrangements and even a massed choir at its tragic climax. The album has proven influential with artists such as Air, David Holmes, Jarvis Cocker, Beck and Dan the Automator.

In 1975, he released the album Rock Around the Bunker, an album written entirely on the subject of National Socialism. Gainsbourg used black comedy, as he and his family had suffered during World War II, being forced to wear the yellow star as the mark of a Jew. Rock Around the Bunker belonged to the mid-1970s "retro" trend.

The next year saw the release of another major work, L'Homme à tête de chou (Cabbage-Head Man), featuring the new character Marilou and sumptuous orchestral themes. Cabbage-Head Man is one of his nicknames, as it refers to his ears. Musically, L'homme à tête de chou turned out to be Gainsbourg's last LP, in the English rock style he had favoured since the late 1960s. He would go on to produce two reggae albums recorded in Jamaica (1979 and 1981) and two electronic funk albums recorded in New York (1984 and 1987).

In Jamaica in 1979, he recorded "Aux Armes et cætera", a reggae version of the French national anthem "La Marseillaise", with Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar and Rita Marley. Following harsh and anti-semitic criticism in right-wing newspaper Le Figaro by Charles de Gaulle biographer Michel Droit, his song earned him death threats from right-wing veteran soldiers of the Algerian War of Independence, who were opposed to their national anthem being arranged in reggae style. In 1979, a show had to be cancelled, because an angry mob of French Army parachutists came to demonstrate in the audience. Alone onstage, Gainsbourg rose his fist and answered "The true meaning of our national anthem is revolutionary" and sung it with the audience. The soldiers joined them, a scene enjoyed by millions as French TV news broadcast it, creating more publicity. Shortly afterward, Gainsbourg bought the original manuscript of "La Marseillaise". He replied to his critics that his version was, in fact, closer to the original as the manuscript clearly shows the words "Aux armes et cætera..." for the chorus. This fine album, described by legendary drummer Sly Dunbar as "Perhaps the best record he ever played on" was his biggest commercial success, including major hits Lola Rastaquouère, Aux Armes Et Cætera and a French version of Sam Theard's jazz classic You Rascal You entitled Vieille Canaille. Rita Marley and the I-Three would record another controversial reggae album with him in 1981, Mauvaises nouvelles des étoiles. Bob Marley was furious, when he discovered that Gainsbourg made his wife Rita sing erotic lyrics. Posthumous new mixes, including dub versions by Soljie Hamilton and versions of both albums by Jamaican artists were released as double "Dub Style" albums in 2003, to critical praise in France as well as abroad and to international commercial success. Although belatedly, Aux Armes Et Cætera – Dub Style and Mauvaises Nouvelles Des Étoiles – Dub Style further established the late Serge Gainsbourg as an influential icon in European pop music.

Final years[edit]

In 1982, Gainsbourg wrote an album for French rocker Alain Bashung, Play blessures. The album, although now considered a masterpiece by French critics, was a commercial failure.

After a turbulent 13-year relationship, Jane Birkin left Gainsbourg. In the 1980s, near the end of his life, Gainsbourg became a regular figure on French TV. His appearances seemed devoted to his controversial sense of humour and provocation. In March 1984, he burned three-quarters of a 500 French franc bill on television to protest against taxes raising up to 75% of income.

He would show up drunk and unshaven on stage: in April 1986, in Michel Drucker's live Saturday evening show, with the American singer Whitney Houston, he objected to Drucker's translating his comments to Whitney Houston and in English stated: "I said, I want to fuck her" - Drucker insisted this meant "He says you are great..." The same year, in another talk show interview, he appeared alongside Catherine Ringer, a well known singer who had appeared in pornographic films. Gainsbourg spat out at her, "You're nothing but a filthy whore, a filthy, fucking whore".

His songs became increasingly eccentric during this period, ranging from the anti-drug Aux Enfants de la Chance, to the highly controversial duet with his daughter Charlotte named Lemon Incest. This translates as "Inceste de citron", a wordplay on "un zeste de citron" (a lemon zest). The title demonstrates Gainsbourg's love for puns – another example of which is Beau oui comme Bowie, a song he gave to Isabelle Adjani.

By December 1988, while a judge at a film festival in Val d'Isère, he was extremely intoxicated at a local theatre where he was to do a presentation. While on stage he began to tell an obscene story about Brigitte Bardot and a champagne bottle, only to stagger offstage and collapse in a nearby seat. Subsequent years saw his health deteriorate. He had to undergo liver surgery but denied any connection to cancer or cirrhosis. His appearances and releases became sparser as he had to rest and recover in Vezelay. During these final years, he released Love on the Beat, a controversial electronic album with mostly sexual themes in the lyrics and his last studio album, You're Under Arrest, presented more synth-driven songs.

Film work[edit]

Gainsbourg appeared in nearly 50 film and television roles. In 1960, he co-starred with Rhonda Fleming in the Italian film La Rivolta Degli Schiavi (The Revolt of the Slaves) as Corvino, the Roman Emperor Massimiano's evil henchman. In 1969, he appeared in William Klein's pop art satire Mister Freedom, and in the same year he starred with Jane Birkin in Les Chemins de Katmandou (The Pleasure Pit). They acted together again in Cannabis the following year, and he also made a brief appearance with Birkin in Herbert Vesely's 1980 film, Egon Schieles Exzess und Bestrafung. He co-starred alongside Birkin in the French film Slogan for which he wrote the title song "La Chanson de Slogan". Also with Birkin, he acted in the French-Yugoslav film Devetnaest djevojaka i jedan mornar (19 girls and one sailor) where he played a role of a partisan.


Gainsbourg directed five movies: Je t'aime ... moi non plus, Le Physique et le Figuré, Équateur, Charlotte for Ever, and Stan the Flasher.


Throughout his career, Gainsbourg wrote the soundtracks for nearly 60 films and television programs. In 1996, he received a posthumous César Award for Best Music Written for a Film for Élisa, along with Zbigniew Preisner and Michel Colombier.


Gainsbourg wrote a novel entitled Evguénie Sokolov.

^ Sometimes spelled Olia, his mother's actual given name was Olga, as written on Gainsbourg's grave^ Benjamin Ivry: The Man With the Yellow Star: The Jewish Life of Serge Gainsbourg, The Jewish Daily Forward, 26 November 2008.^ Great Jewish Music, Deconstruction in Music.^ "Serge Gainsbourg Biography – life, family, parents, name, story, death, wife, school, young, son, book, old, born, husband, marriage, time, year, scandal, sister, The outsider". Notablebiographies.com. Retrieved 25 January 2011. ^ LucienGrix No real name given + Add Contact. "1928 Liliane & Lucien Ginsburg | Flickr – Photo Sharing!". Flickr. Retrieved 25 January 2011. ^ http://www.vanityfair.com, Robinson, Lisa, Legends, “The World of Serge Gainsbourg,” November, 2007, retrieved September 3, 2012^ http://www.m.forward.com, Ivry, Benjamin, “When You Feel The Jewish Life of Serge Gainsbourg,” November 26, 2008, retrieved September 4, 2012^ http://www.vanityfair.com, Robinson, Lisa, Legends, “The World of Serge Gainsbourg,” November, 2007, retrieved September 3, 2012^ http://www.notablebiography.com, "Serge Gainsbourg," retrieved September 3, 2012^ Adams, William Lee (26 January 2010). "French Chanteuse Charlotte Gainsbourg". TIME. ^ "Best-Looking Couples Ever". LIFE.com. See Your World LLC. JoAnne Good (9 July 2011). "Inside Travel: Pooches in Paris". independent.co.uk. "Serge Gainsbourg's women: the music". The Telegraph (Telegraph Media Group Limited). 7 February 2011. "Birkin, Bardot and Gainsbourg, the accidental sex symbol". The Guardian (Guardian News and Media Limited). 5 July 2010. "Jane Birkin". Apple Inc. ^ Wyatt, Petronella (25 January 2008). "Jane Birkin reveals the naked truth about being a Sixties' icon". The Daily Mail (London). ^ Cite error: The named reference ALLMUSIC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).^ Album notes from Initials SG^ Batteur Magazine, France, 2003^ Chrisafis, Angelique, The Guardian (14 April 2006). "Gainsbourg, je t'aime". London. ^ Vanity Fair, "The Secret World of Serge Gainsbourg", November 2007^ Roughly 75 €, but in 1984, 500 FF represented one sixth of the net minimum monthly wage in France^ Hodgkinson, Will, The Guardian (5 February 2003). "Serge, mon amour". London. ^ Kent, Nick , The Guardian (15 April 2006). "What a drag". London. ^ A controversial video for Lemon Incest featured a half-naked Gainsbourg lying on a bed with his daughter Charlotte. Phrases from the song include L'amour que nous ne ferons jamais ensemble/ Est le plus beau le plus violent/ Le plus pur le plus enivrant (The love that we will never make together/ is the most beautiful, the most violent/ The most pure, the most heady).^ "Tam Tam Books". Tam Tam Books. Retrieved 25 January 2011. 

Death and legacy[edit]

Gainsbourg died on 2 March 1991 of a heart attack. He was buried in the Jewish section of the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris. His funeral brought Paris to a standstill, and French President François Mitterrand said of him, "He was our Baudelaire, our Apollinaire... He elevated the song to the level of art." His home at the well-known address 5bis rue de Verneuil is still covered in graffiti and poems.

Since his death, Gainsbourg's music has reached legendary stature in France. He has also gained a following in the English-speaking world, with numerous artists influenced by his arrangements. One of the most frequent interpreters of Gainsbourg's songs was British singer Petula Clark whose success in France was propelled by her recordings of his tunes. In 2003, she wrote and recorded La Chanson de Gainsbourg as a tribute to the composer of some of her biggest hits. The majority of Gainsbourg's lyrics are collected in the volume Dernières nouvelles des étoiles.

The Parisian house that Gainsbourg lived in from 1969 until 1991, at 5 bis Rue de Verneuil, remains a celebrated shrine, with his ashtrays and collections of various items, such as police badges and bullets, intact. The outside of the house is covered in graffiti dedicated to Gainsbourg as well as with photographs of significant figures in his life including Bardot and Birkin.

^ Simmons, Sylvie, The Guardian (2 February 2001). "The eyes have it". London. ^ Bart Plantenga (2014). "Serge Gainsbourg: The Obscurity of Fame". wfmu.org. wfmu.org. Retrieved 18 April 2014. ^ Jody Macgregor (16 April 2014). "8 secret music destinations you need to visit right now". Faster Louder. Faster Louder Pty Ltd. Retrieved 18 April 2014. 

Film biopic[edit]

A feature film titled Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque) was released in France in January 2010, which is based on the graphic novel by the writer-director of the film, Joann Sfar. Gainsbourg is portrayed by Eric Elmosnino and Kacey Mottet Klein. The film was awarded 3 César Awards, including Best Actor for Elmosnino, and nominated for an additional 8.

^ César Awards 2011 imdb.com

Selected covers and tributes[edit]

See also Category:Serge Gainsbourg tribute albums.In 1964, Gainsbourg himself did covers of Babatunde Olatunji's drum-heavy tunes "Kiyakiya (Why Do You Run Away?)", "Akiwowo (Chant to the Trainman)" and "Jin-go-lo-ba" which are featured on Olatunji's acclaimed Drums of Passion LP (1959). They appeared, with new French lyrics but otherwise identical in rhythm, melody and overall sound, as "Joanna", "New York – U.S.A." and "Marabout", respectively, on the "Gainsbourg Percussions" album – without any credit given to Olatunji.One of the celebrating events of the Year of France in Brazil was a concert in September 2009 called "Gainsbourg Imperial", an event celebrating the music of Serge Gainsbourg. It was performed by Brazilian Samba Big Band Orquestra Imperial, having French maestro Jean-Claude Vannier, English singer Jane Birkin and Brazilian musician and singer Caetano Veloso as special guests.Steve Wynn (formerly of The Dream Syndicate) recorded "Bonnie and Clyde" as a duet with Johnette Napolitano of Concrete Blonde on his 1992 solo album, Dazzling Display.Belinda Carlisle covered "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Contact" on her 2007 French language album Voila.Giddle & Boyd (Giddle Partridge and Boyd Rice) covered "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Contact" on their 2008 EP Going Steady with Peggy Moffitt.The first English-language version of a Gainsbourg song was Dionne Warwick's 1965 version of "Mamadou".Australian rock musician Mick Harvey released two CDs of Gainsbourg's songs translated into English. Of particular note is "To All the Lucky Kids (Aux Enfants De La Chance)" on Pink Elephants.Gainsbourg's song "Bonnie and Clyde" is featured in the burlesque show scene of Rush Hour 3 and in the romantic film Laurel Canyon starring Christian Bale and Kate Beckinsale.American indie rock band Luna included a cover of "Bonnie and Clyde" as a hidden track on their 1995 album Penthouse, and their 2001 Luna Live album features a live performance of the song.American artist Angel Corpus Christi merged "Je t'aime ... moi non plus" with Lou Reed's "I Wanna Boogie With You" and recorded it as a duet with Dean Wareham.Swedish band Sambassadeur covers "La Chanson de Prevert" in French on their self-titled debut album.Okkervil River covers "Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais" in English ("I Came Here to Say I'm Going Away").Arcade Fire covered "Poupée de cire, poupée de Son" and also released it as a split 7" single with LCD Soundsystem.Beirut often covers "La Javanaise" in their live sets and it is included in the live album Live at the Music Hall of Williamsburg (2009).Australian pop singer-songwriter Kylie Minogue extensively sampled his duet with Brigitte Bardot "Bonnie and Clyde" on the song "Sensitized" off her 2007 album . In 2003, she sampled "Je t'aime... moi non plus" in a modified version of her song "Breathe" (which originally did not contain any samples) for a special one-off live performance at the Hammersmith Apollo in promotion of her album Body Language.French rapper MC Solaar sampled "Bonnie and Clyde" in his song "Nouveau Western" on his 1994 album Prose Combat. Renegade Soundwave released "Renegade Soundwave" with the same sample at the same time.Irish musician David Holmes covered "Cargo Culte" in his song "Don't Die Just Yet" on his 1997 album Let's Get Killed.American emcee Princess Superstar sampled the melody of the songs "Melody" and "Cargo Culte" in the song "You Get Mad At Napster" on her album Princess Superstar Is.The Welsh comedy-rap band Goldie Lookin Chain extensively sampled the title track of Gainsbourg's Cannabis film soundtrack for their single "Your Missus Is a Nutter".In 1997 Tzadik records released a tribute to Gainsbourg in their Great Jewish Composers series. The album includes covers by John Zorn, Medeski, Martin and Wood, Mike Patton, Fred Frith, Ikue Mori, Marc Ribot and Cyro Baptista.On the HBO show Flight of the Conchords, the sequence for the song "A Kiss is Not a Contract" is a tribute to Gainsbourg's video for "Ballade de Melody Nelson".The track "Serge" on The Herbaliser's album Take London is about a chance encounter with Gainsbourg 3 days before his death.Black Grape's "A Big Day in the North" is based on a sample taken from Initials B.B. and also features samples from "Ford Mustang".In the film High Fidelity, when a pair of punks steals from Rob Gordon's record store, one of the things they stole was a Serge Gainsbourg record.American hip hop duo The Beatnuts sampled "Melody" on their track "Superbad" off their album The Beatnuts LP.Nick Cave sang a duet of "I love you nor do I" with his longtime girlfriend Anita Lane. So did Barry Adamson with Anita in 1993 on his release The Negro inside Me with "Je t'aime ... Moi non plus".Trumpet player Erik Truffaz did a jazz remake of "Je t'aime, moi non plus".Australian psychedelic band Tame Impala covered "Bonnie and Clyde" in their 2011 tour of Europe.American hip hop band De La Soul sampled "Les Oubliettes" and "En Melody" on their second album De La Soul Is Dead released in 1991.In 2005, the album Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited was released by Virgin Records. The album consisted of specially-recorded English-language cover versions of Gainsbourg's songs, recorded by artists as diverse as Franz Ferdinand, Portishead, Placebo, Marc Almond, Michael Stipe, Cat Power, Karen Elson, Jarvis Cocker, Kid Loco, Faultline, Françoise Hardy, Tricky, Marianne Faithfull, Sly and Robbie, Gonzales, Feist, Dani, Trash Palace, The Rakes, The Kills, Carla Bruni, James Iha, Kazu Makino, Nina Persson and Nathan Larson.Brazilian musician and former Titãs member Ciro Pessoa wrote a song in honor of Gainsbourg, named "Até os Anos 70" ("To the 1970s"). It is present in his 2003 album No Meio da Chuva Eu Grito "Help".In 1994, Malcolm McLaren recorded a version of "Je t'aime ... moi non plus" for his album ParisOn the American television drama series Mad Men, the song "Couleur café" was reworked into a jingle for a coffee company in the episode "The Gold Violin" from season 2. The song "Bonnie and Clyde" also featured prominently in the 6th season episode "To Have and to Hold".Slovenian industrial music band Laibach covered the song “Love on the Beat” on their latest album Spectre in 2014.
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