Jane Birkin’s favourite Françoise Hardy songs
Across fashion and music, there is perhaps no figure quite as defining of French culture as Jane Birkin, ignoring, of course, her British passport. As the inspiration behind Hermes’ famed Birkin bag, the muse of Serge Gainsbourg, and an artist in her own right releasing solo albums, the British-born but French-souled star is an undisputed icon. Hand in hand with another French artist, Françoise Hardy, the duo act as the faces of French coolness and style.
Birkin and Hardy are all too often forgotten in musical conversations. The two artists are regularly brought up in fashion spheres as defining figures in the 1960s and ‘70s French style. If you looked up French fashion in the dictionary, they might as well paste an image of their outfits. However, as musicians, they also helped define the seductive sound of France’s countercultural scenes.
Birkin pushed boundaries as she and Gainsbourg released huge tracks like ‘Je t’aime… moi non plus’ that became a sensation through scandal. Hardy was more clean-cut but played an equally vital role in bringing American folk sounds across to the continent as she covered songs from Leonard Cohen and earned the obsession and respect of Bob Dylan after the pair met.
As two leading lights in a distinct scene and a clear sphere for style and sonic inspiration, they struck up a friendship. Upon the news of Birkin’s death, Hardy said, “It was above all her personality, everything she exuded, her way of being which seduced me.”
She recalled their early meetings, “I knew her before she sang. Serge [Gainsbourg] brought me to his house to let me hear the brilliant songs he had made for her,” adding, “Jane was a great artist.”
The respect and admiration were mutual. When asked to pick her favourite French songs, Birkin selected not one but two of Hardy’s tracks. The first came in the form of her breakout hit, ‘Tous Les Garçons et les Filles’. The song always reminded Birkin of those early days when she’d be mistaken for the singer.
“I was living in Boulevard Lannes,” Birkin remembered of the early 1960s. “In the same house as Edith Piaf and when she died, there was an enormous queue on the pavement to see her, because that’s what the French do. I think Serge was there, amongst the others. But it meant that when I pushed my way through and showed my card to the policemen and was let through, the crowd whispered as one man, ‘C’est Françoise Hardy!’. I was so happy to be that distinguished singer that I shut my trap and said nothing.” As Hardy began hitting the big time, this track represented a blossoming friendship.
Her second selection is a more left-field choice, proving her deep love for Hardy’s music. As the 1960s rolled into the ‘70s, Hardy kept proving her worth as more than just a pretty face with a nice voice. Her track ‘Message Personnel’ is fresh, modern and moody as she climbed the ladder to the top of France’s countercultural scene.
Starting with a spoken word poem before bursting into a cinematic ballad, it’s reminiscent of the music Birkin and Gainsbourg would make together. So distinctly French in its lovelorn but lusty sound, Birkin called it not only one of her favourite French songs but one of her favourite tracks of all time.