Friday, February 24, 2006

Gainsbourg Celebration Day 5

Gainsbourg and Gall

France's early career was aided by her encounter with the legendary singer/songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. Gainsbourg, who had already written numerous hits for other singers (which have since gone on to become veritable classics of the French repertoire), took young France's career in hand, writing her a number of famous hits which were seemingly innocent (but actually full of erotic subtexts).
In 1965 France Gall entered the Eurovision Song Contest with one of Gainsbourg's most famous songs. Her performance in Naples on 2 March 1965 was broadcast live to an audience of 150 million viewers and the young French singer went on to triumph in style, winning the contest with Gainsbourg's "Poupée de cire, poupée de son". Ironically, France Gall was not representing France, but Luxembourg! But this did not appear to matter to French music fans. "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" went on to become a huge hit in France and the following year Gainsbourg penned another best-selling single for France Gall, giving her the song "Les Sucettes". ("Les Sucettes" acquired its own special place in French music history. 19-year-old Gall's innocent performance of the song completely missed Gainsbourg's ironic/erotic subtext, much to the delight of certain French music critics). Apparently, France never quite grasped the full sense of Gainsbourg's famous double entendres, but the pair's collaboration came to an end shortly after "Les Sucettes".

Video
France Gall & Serge Gainsbourg - Les Sucettes
Gall and Gainsbourg in a TV show from 1966

France Gall et Serge Gainsbourg -Dents De Lait Dents De Loup
Tv appearance from 1967


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for making these rare videos available for download.
Great to see and hear the beautiful France gall in these early clips.
Her beauty really provides a contrast against what i can only describe as the ugliness of Serge and it is really interesting to see them performing together the great songs he wrote.
YEYEOHYEAH

Anonymous said...

Can u plz upload "Dents de Loup" video again plz....plzplzplz

Dansmoncafe said...

anonymous, if you post your email, I will send it to you via yousendit:)

Anonymous said...

YAY! Plz on poopseek01@rambler.ru//
YAY! YAY! YAY!

Anonymous said...

Well I'm tha anonymous. err...you see i've forgot to check mail. It may sound like an absurd but nevertheless the link has been expired. And..well...can i ask you to upload it again plz???