"Les Sucettes" ("Lollipops") is a
French pop song
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...
written by
Serge Gainsbourg and first recorded by
France Gall
Isabelle Geneviève Marie Anne Gall (9 October 1947 – 7 January 2018), known professionally as France Gall, was a French ''yé-yé'' singer. In 1965, aged 17, she won the Eurovision Song Contest for Luxembourg. Between 1973 and 1992, ...
in 1966. One of Gall's biggest hits, it was an unusually risqué song for its time, although she has said she was unaware of the fact when performing it.
Meaning
"Les Sucettes" is, on the surface, a
yé-yé
''Yé-yé'' () (''yeyé'' in Spanish) was a style of pop music that emerged in Western-Southern Europe in the early 1960s. The French term "''yé-yé''" was derived from the English "yeah! yeah!", popularized by British beat music bands such as ...
-style song about a girl named Annie who likes
aniseed
Anise (; '), also called aniseed or rarely anix is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to Eurasia.
The flavor and aroma of its seeds have similarities with some other spices and herbs, such as star anise, fennel, licorice, and t ...
-flavoured lollipops; much of the lyrical content plays up the homonyms of "Annie" and "anis" (aniseed).
But Gainsbourg's lyric also contains double meanings referring to
oral sex
Oral sex, sometimes referred to as oral intercourse, is sexual activity involving the stimulation of the genitalia of a person by another person using the mouth (including the lips, tongue, or teeth) and the throat. Cunnilingus is oral sex p ...
, such as a line about
barley sugar
Barley sugar (or barley sugar candy) is a traditional variety of boiled sweet (hard candy), often yellow or orange in colour, which is usually made with an extract of barley
Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a ma ...
running down Annie's throat. The very noun for ''lollipop'' in French, "sucette", is the
substantivised verb "sucer", sucking – so that the title and the refrain ("Annie aime les sucettes", Annie loves lollipops) are far more evocative in French than in the English translation. A possible translation to preserve the innuendo would be "Annie loves
suckers". The song also features a direct ''
double entendre
A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially ...
'', stating that Annie has lollipops "pour quelques pennies" (for a few pennies), which can also be heard as "pour quelques pénis" (for a few penises).
Music video
A film clip for the song was directed by Jean-Christophe Averty for the TV show ''Au risque de vous plaire'' (lit. "At the Risk of Pleasing You"). It featured props playing on the sexual references, with lollipops that were somewhat phallic rather than the traditional circle shape, interspersed with cutaways of young women suggestively sucking on lollipops.
Another video was filmed, featuring Gall herself in a schoolgirl uniform inside a house, singing the song.
Reaction
Gall has said that she did not understand the double meaning of the song when she recorded it at age 18. By Gall's account, she did not realize until later why the filming of the clip attracted so many visitors to the set.
Upon its release, the song was a success in France and Belgium. In France, it entered the charts at #30 on July 15
and by the following week, it had climbed to its peak of #9.
Gall was said to be extremely upset upon finally learning the truth about the song's double meaning — "mortified, hiding herself away for weeks, refusing to face anyone".
[Simmons, Sylvie (2002). ''Serge Gainsbourg: A Fistful of Gitanes'', , page 44.] Gall said that she had sung Gainsbourg's songs "with an innocence of which I'm proud. I was pained to then learn that he had turned the situation to his advantage, mocking me."
In a 2001 television interview, Gall said that she felt "betrayed by the adults around me."
Gainsbourg called the song "the most daring song of the century" in an interview with the magazine ''Rock and Folk''.
Charts
Covers
Kim Kay version
Belgian
Belgian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to, Belgium
* Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent
* Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German
*Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...
Eurodance singer
Kim Kay
Kim Van Hee (born 22 February 1978), better known by her stage name Kim Kay or Daphne is a Belgian Pop music, pop/rock singer. She is Flemish people, Flemish, though she is known for delivering vocals in French. Kay took part in the Belgian pres ...
recorded a cover of "Les Sucettes" that released in 2000 on
EMI
EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...
as the fourth
single and as well as the opening track from her only
compilation album, ''
Hits!'' (2000). The single was produced by Phil Sterman and Lov Cook.
Track listing
Other covers
* Gainsbourg recorded his own version, with a
psychedelic arrangement, on the 1969 album ''
Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg
''Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg'' (also known as ''Je t'aime... moi non plus'') is a 1969 collaborative studio album by Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin. It was originally released by Fontana Records. It includes " Je t'aime... moi non plus", whic ...
''.
* The song was performed by
Luce
Luce may refer to:
People
* Luce (name), as a given name and a surname
* Luce (singer)
Places
* Luče, a town in Slovenia
* Luce, Minnesota, an unincorporated community
* Luce Bay, a large Bay in Wigtownshire in southern Scotland
* Luce Co ...
as a contestant on the
eighth season of the French TV singing competition ''
Nouvelle Star
''Nouvelle Star'' (; also known as '' À la Recherche de la Nouvelle Star'' for the first season) is a French television series based on the popular Pop Idol programme produced by FremantleMedia. It was broadcast by M6 in seasons 1–8 before ...
'' in 2010.
* The song was covered by the Swedish
symphonic metal band
Therion in the album ''Les Fleurs du Mal'', released in September 2012.
See also
*
France Gall
Isabelle Geneviève Marie Anne Gall (9 October 1947 – 7 January 2018), known professionally as France Gall, was a French ''yé-yé'' singer. In 1965, aged 17, she won the Eurovision Song Contest for Luxembourg. Between 1973 and 1992, ...
*
Serge Gainsbourg
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sucettes, Les
1966 songs
1966 singles
France Gall songs
Kim Kay songs
Fellatio
Songs written by Serge Gainsbourg
Philips Records singles
EMI Records singles
French-language songs
Obscenity controversies in music