Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1963
La Javanaise
Buy La Javanaise now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'"La Javanaise"' is a song written and composed by Serge Gainsbourg originally for Juliette Grco, and interpreted by both her and Serge Gainsbourg in 1963. The first recordings of both artists constituted the B-sides of each of the two 45s.
Recording Information
* By Serge Gainsbourg :
** Recording Date : January 1963 at Studio Fontana (London)
** Arrangements and conducting : Harry Robinson
** Producer : Jacques Plait
** Format : 45 rpm EP Philips 432-862 (Title: "Vilaine fille mauvais garon")
** Duration :
** Release Date : March 1963Source : volume 6 of 'L'ternel Fminin' by Juliette Grco (Mercury, 2003).
* By Juliette Grco :
** Recording Date : 4 April 1963 at Studio Blanqui (Paris)
** Arrangements and conducting : Jean-Michel Defaye
** Format : 45 rpm S Philips 373-156
** Duration :
** Release Date : May 1963
* Publishers : Warner Chappel Music Publishing, Melody Nelson Publishing
Genesis
One summer evening in 1962, Grco and Gainsbourg spent the evening listening to records and drinking champagne in the huge lounge at 33, rue de Verneuil. The next day, he sent her 'La Javanaise'. [...] It seems that Grco had debuted it in March 1963 by placing it at the beginning of her cabaret tour 'La Tte de l'art'.
The title is a pun playing on the Parisian java dancing and the javanais style of speaking. The song heavily employs unaltered French words that naturally have an sequence; thus the lyrics resemble the word game of javanais.
In films
* Bruno Podalyds used this song in the comedy 'Dieu seul me voit (Versailles-Chantiers)' (1998).
* In Ron Howard's 'Da Vinci Code' (2006), this song is played in the car of a French police officer.
* Pascale Ferran used this song in the film 'Bird People' (2014).
* Madeleine Peyroux's 2006 recording was used in Guillermo del Toro's 'The Shape of Water' (2017).
References
Buy La Javanaise now from Amazon
<-- Return to songs from 1963