The Best Of Bardot [Extra tracks]

'The Best of Bardot' is a budget-priced, twenty-track trawl through the most beautiful girl in the world's brief-pop career from 1963 to 1970. It's almost as sublime as those scenes in 'Les Mepris' Godard inserted for the producers- that alluring and perfect nudity...This collection features several contributions from legendary songwriter Serge Gainsbourg (sadly remembered more for a chatshow incident with Whitney Houston), who was Bardot's lover and mentor before he had the pleasure of meeting the lovely Jane Birkin...

The most famous Gainsbourg song 'Je t'aime...moi non plus' is included here- though it is the SG/BB-original rather than the SG/JB-version that scaled the charts (this version was unreleased after Bardot reqeusted it to remain that way). Gainsbourg's contributions, several of which turn up on his brilliant 'Comic Strip' collection are worth the price of entry alone- 'L'appareil a sous' sounds like the missing link between John Barry's 'Walk Don't Run' and Herbie Hancock's 'Blow Up' soundtrack (words like 'chanson' and 'kitsch' may be relevant?). Even better is 'Bubble Gum', 'Comic Strip', 'Contact', and contender for that greatest single of all time that drifts round my list-orientated head, 'Bonnie & Clyde.' As with Gainsbourg's own 'Ford Mustang' there's a huge nod to the American-influence on French-post-WWII culture with the bursting joy that is 'Harley Davidson' (later covered by Mick Harvey & Anita Lane). This is perhaps related to the embrace/rejection of America evident in Godard's career (A Bout de Souffle-Bande a Part-Made in the USA-Weekend-Tout Va Bien: trace the moves), or the fetishistic-theorums of Barthes in 'Mythologies' (e.g. the citroen piece). Everything seemed wonderful and the future in the 1960s, from this future-point where we assimilate, retro-ize and fantasize how great it used to be (and staring at the images on the sleeve from the French Ministry of Culture, why not?).

There are plenty of other great songs here of a non-Serge variety- highlights being 'Ca Pourrait Changer', 'Le Soleil','Le Diable est Anglais', & 'Nue au Soleil'. This is lush music for those sundaymorningcomedowns, and would make an ideal purchase alongside such joys as Francoise Hardy's 'The Vogue Years', Nico's 'Chelsea Girl', Scott Walker's 'II' & Gainsbourg's classic 'The History of Melody Nelson.' It oozes sex and chic, and we really should speak French more...

On this album, there are three duets with Serge Gainsbourg. Je t'aime moi non plus was intended for release as a single but it remained in the vaults - I think Brigitte decided she didn't want it released. In any case, Serge then recorded it with Jane Birkin. That version was released as a singe but was quickly banned in France. The singles were shipped across to the UK, where it was banned by the BBC but allowed to go on sale. It sold well, eventually reaching number one on the UK charts - a rare achievement for a record sung in a foreign language. The other duets between Serge and Brigitte are Comic strip and an original song about Bonnie and Clyde. Among the solo recordings, the highlights are L' Appareil a sous, La Madrague and Harley Davidson.

Brigitte's music is not essential, even if you are building a collection of French pop music, but it is worth an occasional listen, especially for Je t'aime moi non plus.