(April 2, 1928 – March 2, 1991) Poet, singer-songwriter, painter, actor and director. Born in Paris, France, the son of Jewish Russian parents. He had well known childs : a daughter, Charlotte, with Jane Birkin; and a son, Lucien Gainsbourg (aka Lulu), with his last partner, Bambou. Two other childs are non-mediatics : Natacha (born 8 August 1964) and Paul (born 13 April 1968) with Françoise Antoinette Pancrazzi.
Lucien Ginzburg wanted to be a painter but earned his living as a piano player in bars. He was tapped to join the cast of the musical 'Milord L'Arsouille', 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, never as a performer.
His early influence was Boris Vian. Gainsbourg wanted to free himself from what he considered old-fashioned 'chanson' and explore other musical grounds, influenced especially by British and American pop. He also wrote soundtracks for more than 40 movies and directed himself in four movies: 'Je t'aime... moi non plus' (10 years censored*), 'Equateur', 'Charlotte For Ever' and 'Stan The Flasher'.
* 541072 (1969) the song, featured simulated sounds of female orgasm. Originally recorded with Brigitte Bardot, it was instead released with a future girlfriend Jane Birkin as Brigitte Bardot backed out. The song was censored in many countries and in France even the toned-down version was suppressed. The Vatican made a public statement citing the song as offensive. Its notoriety led to it reaching no. 1 in the UK chart.
A frequent interpreters of Gainsbourg's songs was British torch singer Petula Clark, whose success in France was propelled by her recordings of his tunes but the first English-language version of a Gainsbourg song was Dionne Warwick's 1965 version of 'Mamadou'.
Concept album 408587 produce