Serge Gainsbourg made his recording debut in 1958, but it was in the late '60s that his brief affair with actress Brigitte Bardot parlayed Gainsbourg's jazz-inflected music to lushly arranged and erotic sound. Afterward, he became involved with Jane Birkin and they recorded the 1969 duet "Je T'Aime...Moi Non Plus," a song complete with steamy lyrics and explicit heavy breathing. Although banned in many countries, it reached the top of the charts throughout Europe. Gainsbourg returned in 1971 with Histoire de Melody Nelson, a dark song cycle which signalled his increasing alienation from modern culture: drugs, disease, suicide, and misanthropy became thematic fixtures of his work. ~ Jason Ankeny