1928–1956: Early years Serge Gainsbourg was born in Paris on 2 April 1928, in the maternity ward of the
Hôtel-Dieu de Paris on the
Île de la Cité. He was the son of
Russian Jewish émigrés, Joseph and Olga Ginsburg. Born Brucha Goda Besman (nicknamed Olia/Olga) in
Feodosiya in 1894 to a
Russian-Jewish family, Serge's mother was a
mezzo-soprano singer. Serge's father Joseph was born in
Constantinople in the
Ottoman Empire of
Ukrainian-Jewish descent in 1896. Originally interested in painting, he entered the
Petrograd Conservatory and then the
Moscow Conservatory to study music, becoming a classically trained pianist. He came to
Crimea, where he met and married Olga in 1918. The couple fled
Odessa for Paris via
Georgia and then
Istanbul in the years following the
Russian Revolution. The couple arrived in
Marseille in 1921, settling in Paris near Olga's brother, who worked for the
Louis Dreyfus Bank. Joseph became a piano performer at bars, casinos, and cabarets, while Olga sang at the
Conservatoire Rachmaninoff. Serge and his twin sister Liliane had an elder brother Marcel, born in 1922, who died at sixteen months of pneumonia. They also had an older sister Jacqueline, born in 1926. The family lived in the working-class districts of Paris, first at 35 Rue de la Chine in the
20th arrondissement, and then at 11 Rue Chaptal in the
9th arrondissement. They obtained French nationality in 1932. Joseph taught Serge and Liliane to play the piano. During the occupation, as artistic professions were forbidden to Jews, his pianist father crossed to
Limoges in 1942. At the time, Limoges was part of
zone libre, an area of France governed by the
Vichy regime that was not occupied by Germany, but it became unsafe for Jews after Germany eventually
occupied the area in 1942. After the
liberation of Paris, the family returned, living at 55 Avenue Bugeaud in the
16th arrondissement. Serge attended
Lycée Condorcet in Paris, but dropped out before completing his
Baccalauréat. In 1945, Gainsbourg's father enrolled him in
Beaux-Arts de Paris, a prestigious art school. There, Gainsbourg met his first wife, Elisabeth "Lize" Levitsky, the daughter of
Russian aristocrats and a part-time model. Whilst filling in a form to join the songwriting society
SACEM, Gainsbourg decided to change his first name to Serge. According to his future partner
Jane Birkin, "Lucien reminded him of a hairdresser's assistant." At the Milord l'Arsouille, Gainsbourg accompanied singer and club star
Michèle Arnaud on the guitar. which describes a day in the life of a
Paris Métro ticket man, whose job is to validate passenger tickets by stamping holes in them. In the song, the job is described as so monotonous, that the ticket man eventually thinks of putting a hole through his head and being buried in another hole. After the debut, Serge was given a steady performance segment at the club, where he was eventually spotted by talent agent
Jacques Canetti, who helped advance Gainsbourg's career with a regular performance segment at the Théâtre des Trois Baudets, as well as by touring. In 1958, Arnaud began recording several interpretations of Gainsbourg's songs. His debut album,
Du chant à la une !... (1958), was recorded in the summer of 1958, backed by arranger
Alain Goraguer and his orchestra, beginning a fruitful collaboration. It was released in September, becoming a commercial and critical failure, despite winning the grand prize at
L'Academie Charles Cross and the praise of Boris Vian, who compared him to
Cole Porter. His next album,
N° 2 (1959), suffered a similar fate. He made his film debut in 1959 with a supporting role in the French-Italian co-production
Come Dance with Me, starring his future lover
Brigitte Bardot. In the following year, he featured as a Roman officer in the Italian
sword-and-sandals epic-film
The Revolt of the Slaves. He would continue playing "nasty characters" in similar productions, including
Samson (1961) and
The Fury of Hercules (1962). Gainsbourg's first commercial success came in 1960 with his single "L'Eau à la bouche", the title song from the
film of the same name, for which he had composed the score. ''
L'Étonnant Serge Gainsbourg'' (1961), his third LP, included what would become one of his best known songs from this period, "La Chanson de Prévert", which lifted lyrics from the
Jacques Prévert poem "Les feuilles mortes". After a night of drinking champagne and dancing with singer
Juliette Gréco, Gainsbourg went home and wrote "
La Javanaise" for her. They would both release versions of the song in 1962, but it is Gainsbourg's rendition that has endured.
1963–1966: Eurovision and involvement in the yé-yé movement Despite initially mocking
yé-yé, a style of French pop typically sung by young female singers, Gainsbourg would soon become one of its most important figures after writing a string of hits for artists like Brigitte Bardot,
Petula Clark and
France Gall. He had met Gall after being introduced by a friend as they were
Philips Records labelmates, thus beginning a successful collaboration that would produce hits like "N'écoute pas les idoles", the frequently covered "
Laisse tomber les filles", and "
Poupée de cire, poupée de son", the latter of which was the
Luxembourgish winning entry at the
Eurovision Song Contest 1965. Inspired by the 4th movement (Prestissimo in F minor) from
Beethoven's
Piano Sonata No. 1, the song featured
double entendres and wordplay, a staple of Gainsbourg's lyrics. The controversially risqué "
Les sucettes" ("Lollipops"), featured references to
oral sex, unbeknownst to the 18-year-old Gall, who thought the song was about lollipops. Gainsbourg married a second time on 7 January 1964, to Françoise-Antoinette "Béatrice" Pancrazzi, 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. Olatunji later sued Gainsbourg for lifting three tracks from his 1960 album
Drums of Passion. Nevertheless, the album has been hailed as being ahead of its time for its incorporation of world music and lyrical content depicting interracial love. He would reunite with Michèle Arnaud for the duet "Les Papillons noirs" from her 1966 comeback record.
1967–1970: Famous muses and duets In 1967, Gainsbourg wrote the script and provided the soundtrack for the musical comedy television film
Anna starring
Anna Karina in the titular role. That same year, he composed the military march "
The Sand and the Soldier" for the
Israel Defense Forces. Another Gainsbourg song, "
Boum-Badaboum" by
Minouche Barelli, was entered by
Monaco in the
Eurovision Song Contest 1967, coming in fifth place. In that year, Gainsbourg would have a brief but ardent love affair with
Brigitte Bardot. One day she asked him to write the most beautiful love song he could imagine and, that night, he wrote the duets "" and "
Bonnie and Clyde" for her. The erotic yet cynical "Je t'aime", describing the hopelessness of physical love, was recorded by the pair in a small glass booth in Paris but after Bardot's husband, German businessman
Gunter Sachs, became aware of the recording, he demanded it be withdrawn. Bardot pleaded with Gainsbourg not to release it, and he complied. Gainsbourg borrowed heavily from
Antonín Dvořák's
New World Symphony for the title track, named after and dedicated to Bardot. His percussion-heavy 1968 single "Requiem pour un con" was performed onscreen by Gainsbourg in the crime film
Le Pacha, for which he was the composer. Shortly after being left by Bardot, Gainsbourg was asked by
Françoise Hardy to write a French version of the song "It Hurts to Say Goodbye". The result was "
Comment te dire adieu", which is notable for its uncommon rhymes and has become one of Hardy's signature songs. In mid-1968 Gainsbourg started a relationship with English singer and actress
Jane Birkin, 18 years his junior, whom he met when she was cast as his co-star in
Slogan (1969). In July 1971 they had a daughter,
Charlotte, who would become an actress and singer. Although many sources state that they were married, according to Charlotte this was not the case. Her vocals were an octave higher than Bardot's, contained suggestive heavy breathing and culminated in simulated orgasm sounds. Released in February 1969, the song topped the
UK Singles Chart after being temporarily banned due to its overtly sexual content. It was banned from the radio in several other countries, including Spain, Sweden, Italy and France before 11pm. It was included on the joint album
Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg, which also contained "Élisa" and new recordings of songs written for other artists including "Les sucettes", "L'anamour" and "Sous le soleil exactement". In 2017,
Pitchfork named it the 44th best album of the 1960s.
1971–1977: Concept albums Following the success of "Je t'aime... moi non plus", his record company had expected Gainsbourg to produce another hit. But after having already made a fortune, he was uninterested, deciding to "move onto something serious". The result was his 1971 concept album
Histoire de Melody Nelson, which tells the story of an illicit relationship between the narrator and the teenage Melody Nelson after running her over in his
Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. The album heavily features Gainsbourg's distinctive half-spoken, half-sung vocal delivery, loose drums, guitar, and bass evoking funk music, and lush string and choral arrangements by
Jean-Claude Vannier. Gainsbourg's next record ''
Vu de l'extérieur'' (1973) was not strictly a concept album like its predecessor and follow-ups, despite its focus on
scatology throughout. It largely failed to connect with critics and listeners. In that year, Gainsbourg also wrote all of the tracks on Birkin's debut solo album
Di doo dah and he would continue to write for her until his death. In 1975, Gainsbourg released the darkly comic album
Rock Around the Bunker, performed in an upbeat 1950s rock and roll style and written on the subject of
Nazi Germany and the
Second World War, drawing from his experiences as a Jewish child in occupied France. The next year saw the release of yet another concept album, ''
L'Homme à tête de chou (The Cabbage Head Man''), a nickname used by Gainsbourg himself in reference to his large ears. This album marked Gainsbourg's first foray into the Jamaican
reggae genre, a style he would revisit for his next two albums. In 1976, Gainsbourg also made his directorial debut with ''
Je t'aime moi non plus, an offbeat drama named after his song of the same name. It starred Birkin in the lead role, with American actor Joe Dallesandro playing the gay man she falls in love with. The film received positive critical notices from the French press and acclaimed director François Truffaut. The album was immensely popular, achieving platinum status for selling over one million copies. But it was not without controversy, as the title track—a reggae version of the French national anthem "La Marseillaise"—received harsh criticism in the newspaper Le Figaro'' from
Michel Droit, who condemned the song and opined that it may cause a rise in
antisemitism. Gainsbourg also received 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. Birkin left Gainsbourg in 1980, but the two remained close, with Gainsbourg becoming the godfather of Birkin and
Jacques Doillon's daughter
Lou and writing her next three albums. His first live album
Enregistrement public au Théâtre Le Palace (1980), exhibited his reggae-influenced style at the time. Also in 1980, Gainsbourg dueted with actress
Catherine Deneuve on the hit song "
Dieu fumeur de havanes" from the film
Je vous aime and published a novella entitled
Evguénie Sokolov, the tale of an
avant-garde painter who exploits his
flatulence by creating a style known as "gasograms". His final reggae recording,
Mauvaises nouvelles des étoiles (1981), was recorded at
Compass Point Studios in The Bahamas with the same personnel as its predecessor.
Bob Marley, husband to The I Threes singer
Rita Marley, was reportedly furious when he discovered that Gainsbourg had made his wife Rita sing erotic lyrics. During this period, Gainsbourg also had success writing material for other artists, most notably "
Manureva" for
Alain Chamfort, a tribute to French sailor
Alain Colas and the titular
trimaran he disappeared at sea with.
1982–1991: Final years, Eurovision Again and death In 1982, Gainsbourg contributed his songwriting to French rock singer
Alain Bashung's fourth studio album
Play blessures, which was a left turn creatively for Bashung and is often considered a
cult classic despite negative contemporary reviews. His second film as a director,
Équateur (1983), was adapted from the 1933 novel
Tropic Moon by Belgian writer
Georges Simenon and is set in colonialist
French Equatorial Africa.
Love on the Beat (1984) saw Gainsbourg move on from reggae and onto a more electronic,
new wave inspired sound. The album is known for addressing taboo sexual subject matters, with Gainsbourg dressed in drag on the cover and the highly controversial duet with his daughter
Charlotte, "
Lemon Incest", which seemed to clearly refer to his fantasy of wanting to make love to his child. That same year, on the
Canal+ talk show "Mon Zénith à moi," he appeared alongside
Les Rita Mitsouko singer
Catherine Ringer. Gainsbourg spat out at her, "You're nothing but a filthy whore" to which Ringer replied, "Look at you, you're just a bitter old alcoholic... you've become a disgusting old parasite." Gainsbourg's final partner until his death was the model
Caroline Paulus, better known by her stage name Bambou. His 1986 film
Charlotte for Ever further expanded on the themes found in "Lemon Incest". He starred in the film alongside Charlotte as a widowed, alcoholic father living with his daughter. His sixteenth and final studio album, ''
You're Under Arrest (1987), largely retained the funky new wave sound of Love on the Beat'', but also introduced
hip hop elements. A return to concept albums for Gainsbourg, it tells the story of an unnamed narrator and his drug-addicted girlfriend in New York City. The album's anti-drug message was exemplified by the single "Aux enfants de la chance". In November 1988, Gainsbourg appeared on the show ''Sébastien c'est fou !'' on
TF1, and was surprised by the Petits Chanteurs d'Asnières boys' choir, who dressed up as him, with sunglasses,
sport coats, jeans, painted-on stubble, and
prop cigarettes and whiskey glasses; they sang "Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais" ('I came to tell you that I'm leaving'), changing the words to "On est venu te dire qu’on t’aime bien" ('We came to tell you that we love you'). A clip of the performance, in which Gainsbourg appeared to be deeply
moved by the children's tribute, went
viral on the Internet in 2023–24, inspiring
Halloween costumes and
Internet memes. In 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. In his ill health, he retired to a private apartment in
Vézelay in July 1990, where he would spend six months. He continued to write for other artists, including the lyrics to "
White and Black Blues" by
Joëlle Ursull, the
French entry in the
Eurovision Song Contest 1990, coming in second place. His final film,
Stan the Flasher, starred
Claude Berri as an English teacher who engages in
exhibitionism. Gainsbourg's last album of original material was Birkin's
Amours des feintes in 1990. Gainsbourg, who smoked five packs of unfiltered
Gitanes cigarettes a day, died from a heart attack at his home on 2 March 1991, aged 62. == Legacy and influence ==