"La Javanaise" is a song written and composed by Serge Gainsbourg originally for Juliette Gréco, 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 garçon") Duration : Release Date : March 1963 By Juliette Gréco : 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 Chappell Music Publishing, Melody Nelson Publishing
Genesis
One summer evening in 1962, Gréco 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 Gréco had debuted it in March 1963 by placing it at the beginning of her cabaret tour La Tête 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 Podalydès 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). Emmanuel Mouret uses the song in his 2022 movie Diary of a fleeting affair.
References
External links
Serge Gainsbourg - La Javanaise (1968), Les archives de la RTS at YouTube.