Serge Gainsbourg: L'Étonnant Serge Gainsbourg [PAROLE]

Why you'll love it

This is early Gainsbourg at his most elegant, jazz and chanson with Alain Goraguer's orchestra. AllMusic called it one of his most intoxicating amalgams of jazz and pop styles.

About the album

Long before the headlines, Serge Gainsbourg was a sharp-suited young songwriter setting French poetry to music. On his third album, out on Philips in April 1961, he borrowed from Gérard de Nerval, Victor Hugo and Félix Arvers and gave each of them a cool, jazzy new outfit.

Pianist Alain Goraguer arranges and conducts his orchestra throughout. "La Chanson de Prévert" is the tender, much-loved heart of the record, a song first recorded by Michèle Arnaud. "Le Rock de Nerval" sets a 19th-century poet to a sly rock rhythm, "Chanson de Maglia" takes on Hugo, "Les Amours perdues" was a Juliette Gréco song, and "Les Femmes c'est du chinois" pairs Gainsbourg's words with Goraguer's music. "Le Sonnet d'Arvers" closes the album with Félix Arvers's famous sonnet, and "Viva Villa" and "Personne" round out a set that moves easily between jazz, Latin rhythms and ballads.

He went on to write more than 550 songs and remains one of France's best-loved figures. The title translates as The Astonishing Serge Gainsbourg, which, by his later standards, is a rather modest claim.

Also at Kops: more Serge Gainsbourg on vinyl · browse World

Tracklist

Listen

On Parole (cat# PAROLE104), a reissue of the 1961 album.