The Story Behind Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin’s Orgasmic “Je T’Aime… Moi Non-Plus” That Was Banned in Several Countries

After a disappointing date with his then-girlfriend actress and singer, Brigitte Bardot, who was married at the time, Serge Gainsbourg was tasked by the French actress with writing her “the most beautiful love song you can imagine.”

That evening, Gainsbourg penned two of his most well-known songs: “Bonnie and Clyde,” which both recorded and released on their 1968 album of the same name, and the more seductive “Je T’Aime… Moi Non-Plus.”

‘You are the wave, and I, the naked island’

Though the title is a bit of Gainsbourg’s wordplay in French, translated into English it lands on the contradictory “I love you… me neither.” Whatever the interpretation of the title by the listener, the song delivered one of the most intimate consummations between two people on record.

I love you, I love you
Oh yes, I love you
Not more than I
Oh my love

As a faltering wave

I go, I go and I come
Inside you
I go and I come
Inside you
And I hold back

You are the wave, and I, the naked island

A Breathy Bardot

Gainsbourg and Bardot recorded a version of “Je T’Aime… Moi Non-Plus.” in a little booth at a studio in Paris, which resulted in some “heavy petting, according to engineer William Flageollet, during the recording. Stories of the pair’s steamy session and Bardot’s moans and breathiness on the recording only stirred more gossip in the news and angered her husband at the time German photographer Gunter Sachs.

Soon after, Bardot wrote a letter to Gainsbourg begging him not to release it. Gainsbourg obliged. At the time, Bardot was also set to star in Shalako with Sean Connery and didn’t want a deeper scandal brewing.

“The music is very pure,” Gainsbourg said in defense of his song. “For the first time in my life, I wrote a love song and it’s taken badly.” In 1986, Bardot permitted the release of her version of “Je T’Aime… Moi Non-Plus” with Gainsbourg.

Even though he initially shelved his recording with Bardot, Gainsbourg still wanted to release the song and asked everyone to be a duet partner, including Marianne Faithful, and French actresses Mireille Darc and Valérie Lagrange. “I don’t know how he got Jane [Birkin] to do it because she was such a lovely English upper-class schoolgirl,” said Faithfull in Sylvie Simmons’ 2002 book Serge Gainsbourg: A Fistful of Gitanes. “But of course, he would have got her to do it by f–king her brains out. And ‘Je t’aime…’ was perfect for Jane. She was born for it.”

Birkin’s Version

After Gainsbourg met British actress Jane Birkin when both starred in the French romantic comedy Slogan in 1968 they were inseparable. They remained together for 12 years and shared a daughter singer, songwriter, and actress Charlotte Gainsbourg. Once filming was complete, Gainsbourg asked Birkin to sing “Je T’Aime” with him and she agreed, only because she didn’t want anyone else to record the sexy song with him.

“I only sang it because I didn’t want anybody else to sing it,” revealed Birkin. “So when Serge heard me singing rather brightly in the bath, he said ‘I’m going to write ‘Jane B’ and then on the other side, perhaps you’d like to sing ‘Je T’aime… Moi Non-Plus,’ but in an octave higher than the Bardot version so you’ll sound like a little boy.’ I said ‘Yes’ immediately.”

To gauge listeners’ reaction to the song, the couple brought a recording of it to the hotel where they were living at the time—where Oscar Wilde had died, then known as Hôtel d’Alsace—and slipped on “Je T’Aime . . . Moi Non Plus” as background music for people dining at the hotel restaurant. “Everybody’s knives and forks were in the air, suspended,” said Gainsbourg, who along with Birkin, noticed that everyone had stopped eating. He thought “I think we’ve got a hit.”

Released in February 1969, Birkin and Gainsbourg’s version played like a lovemaking session between the two and took the song to another level of simulated sex between the two lovers. Birkin heard the Gainsbourg-Bardot version and considered it “hot,” and may have gone overboard during her own recording.

“I got a bit carried away with the heavy breathing, so much so that I was told to calm down, which meant that at one point I stopped breathing altogether,” laughed Birkin in a 2010 interview. “If you listen to the record now, you can still hear that little gap.”

Banned

Birkin and Gainsbourg’s version of “Je T’Aime… Moi Non-Plus” went to No. 1 on the UK singles chart and No. 2 in Ireland and the cover of the single featured an advisory message: “Interdit aux moins de 21 ans.” (“Forbidden to those under 21.”)

Soon after its release, the single was banned by the BBC, in Spain, Italy, Sweden, and Brazil and had limited air time in France and the U.S. because of its sexual suggestiveness, and Birkin’s near orgasmic sounds.

“Je T’Aime… Moi Non-Plus” was also denounced by the Vatican and Pope Paul VI excommunicated the record executive who released the single in Italy.

“It wasn’t a rude song at all,” said Birkin in 2004. “I don’t know what all the fuss was about. The English just didn’t understand it. I’m still not sure they know what it means.”

Photo: Shutterstock/28536d