Serge Gainsbourg

Introduced to a new generation of fans through 2010 biopic Gainsbourg, vie héroïque, Serge Gainsbourg became known on the global stage as the unshaven, gravel-voiced French pop genius who mastered the art of scandal, revelled in provocation and took taboo-breaking to a new level. Part troubadour, part poet, part dirty old man, he measured out his career in strong cigarettes and unforgettable songs, like the orgasmic 1969 duet with Jane Birkin "Je t'aime moi non plus", and "Les sucettes", which was also recorded by French teen star France Gall, and provoked controversy for its innuendo-laden subject matter: lollipops.

Gainsbourg, the ivory tinkling young jazz man, makes an appearance in Next Steps.

In the late '50s, when he made his album debut with Du chant à la une (1958), and early '60s, Gainsbourg built on his experience as a pianist on the Parisian cabaret circuit to exercise his jazz chops — check out "Du jazz dans le ravin" and "Ce mortel ennui", before skipping to the lush arrangement of "Valse de Melody" from 1971's Histoire de Melody Nelson, a pervy masterpiece that weaves its narrative through back alleys of sleazy rock and gentle valleys of acoustic pop. L'homme à tête de chou (which translates as "The Man with a Cabbage Head", a self-deprecating reference to his own veg-like ears) kept him on the kinky concept track through '76.

Gainsbourg delivers a synth-rockin' live performance from the late-'80s, in Deep Cuts.

If Gainsbourg's stylistic choices dipped into the full palette of pop, a desire to shake things up was uniform throughout his output — Rock Around the Bunker (1975) was a darkly comic album based on German fascism, perhaps Gainsbourg's way of addressing his experiences as a Jew during the Second World War — few other artists could get away with a track like "Nazi Rock". And to dispel the common mental image of Gainsbourg chain-smoking his way through a recording session, naked, exerting himself to do little more than breathe heavily into a microphone, experience the driving synth-rock energy of "Harley David Son of a Bitch" from the 1988 live release Le Zénith de Gainsbourg.

Was Serge Gainsbourg controversial? Does the Pope (who declared "Je t'aime moi non plus" offensive) wear a funny hat? We're talking about the artist who recorded "Lemon Incest" as a duet with his daughter Charlotte, cut a reggae version of the French national anthem ("Aux armes et caetera"), set light to 500 francs on TV as a protest against taxation, and made lewd remarks to Whitney Houston in front of a live audience in 1986. But there's so much more to the man than his shocking antics. He worked on the soundtracks to more than 40 movies, including the soft-core 1977 romp Goodbye Emmanuelle, experimented with a huge range of musical styles — from traditional chanson to jazz, rock 'n' roll and synth pop — and remains a hero to current artists like Air, Beck and Jarvis Cocker. When he died in 1991 he was eulogised by French President François Mitterand as "our Baudelaire, our Apollinaire". Prepare to enter Serge world.