"Et moi, et moi, et moi" (, ) is the debut single by French singer-songwriter

Jacques Dutronc Jacques Dutronc (; born 28 April 1943) is a French singer, songwriter, guitarist, composer, and actor. Some of Dutronc's best-known hits include " Il est cinq heures, Paris s'éveille" (which AllMusic has called "his finest hour"), "Le Responsa ...

, released in 1966. It is featured on his self-titled debut album.

Composition

The record came about as the result of rivalry between the two artistic directors at

Disques Vogue Disques Vogue was a jazz record company founded in France by Léon Cabat and Charles Delaunay in 1947, the year after the American Vogue label ceased. They originally specialized in jazz, featuring American performers such as Sidney Bechet, ...

Christian Fechner Christian Fechner (26 July 1944 – 25 November 2008) was a French film producer, screenwriter and director. After starting off as an illusionist, he became a music producer with French singer Antoine. He transformed Antoine's musicians, l ...

and Jacques Wolfsohn. According to legend, Wolfsohn, who had previously promoted

Françoise Hardy Françoise Madeleine Hardy (; 17 January 1944 – 11 June 2024) was a French singer-songwriter, actress, and author. She was known for singing melancholic, sentimental ballads. Hardy rose to prominence in the early 1960s as a leading figure in F ...

, used to amuse himself by taking pot-shots at Fechner's

Revox ReVox (on-logo styling REVOX) is a brand name, registered by Studer on 27 March 1951 for Switzerland, Swiss audio equipment. History The first Studer-designed tape recorders were branded Dynavox. After the first production series of Dynavox rec ...

tape-machine with a rifle from his office window. Wolfsohn wanted to better Fechner's success with the hippy-influenced singer-songwriter

Antoine Antoine is a French language, French given name (from the Latin ''Antonius'' meaning 'highly praise-worthy') that is a variant of Danton (name), Danton, Titouan, D'Anton and Antonin. The name is most common in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada ...

. He asked Jacques Dutronc, at that time his assistant and a songwriter at Vogue, and the novelist

Jacques Lanzmann Jacques Lanzmann (4 May 1927 – 21 June 2006) was a French journalist, writer and lyricist. He is best known as a novelist and for his songwriting partnership with Jacques Dutronc. Early life Lanzmann spent the early part of his life in Auv ...

to work on songs for a rival act, a singer called Benjamin. Benjamin released an EP in 1966, featuring songs written with Dutronc and a Lanzmann-Dutronc composition, "Cheveux longs" (Long Hair). However, Wolfsohn was disappointed by Benjamin's recording of "Et moi, et moi, moi". A second version was recorded, with Dutronc's former bandmate Hadi Kalafate on vocals. Wolfsohn then asked Dutronc if he would be interested in recording his own version. The words to "Et moi, et moi et moi" have been described as sending up the socially conscious but "self-involved" lyrical style of Antoine, with Lanzmann and Dutronc perhaps suggesting doubt as to its sincerity. In the song, Dutronc alternates between thinking about people in different places around the world and thinking about himself. The opening of the song is ''Sept cent millions de chinois/Et moi, et moi, et moi'' ("Seven hundred million Chinese people/And then there's me"). According to Lanzmann, the song is "about complete selfishness...all the terrible things that go on a stone's-throw away, that touch us but that, nevertheless, do not prevent us from continuing to live and enjoy the evening's barbecue". Musically, the song's fuzzy, choppy guitar line bears the influence of

the Pretty Things ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

and

the Kinks The Kinks were an English rock band formed in London in 1963 by brothers Ray Davies, Ray and Dave Davies, and Pete Quaife. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British ...

Release and promotion

"Et moi, et moi, et moi" was released as the lead track on a four-track EP (EPL. 8461) by Vogue in France in August 1966. In the UK and The Netherlands, it was released as a 2-track 7" single, with "Mini, mini, mini" as the b-side. In Germany, "Mini, mini, mini" was released as an a-side, backed with "Et moi, et moi, et moi". For the Italian market, an Italian-language version titled "Il Mundo Va Cosi" was recorded. A version in Japanese was also attempted but was not released. Dutronc performed "Et moi, et moi, et moi" on the French television show ''Le palmarès des chansons'', broadcast on Channel One by the

Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française The (; ORTF; , or French Radio and Television Broadcasting Office) was the national agency charged, between 1964 and 1975, with providing public radio and television in France. All programming, especially news broadcasts, were under strict cont ...

on 29 September 1966. He also toured to promote the single.

Reception

"Et moi, et moi, et moi" reached number 2 in the French singles chart in September 1966 and number 7 in the Swiss chart the following month. It also gained popularity on the British mod scene where, despite the language barrier, it was appreciated as satirising the

folk revival The American folk music revival began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Early folk music performers include Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Pete Seeger, Ewan MacColl (UK), Richard Dyer-Bennet, Oscar Brand, Jean Ritchie ...

movement. Cultural historian Larry Portis describes the arrival of Dutronc on the French music scene, along with that of

Michel Polnareff Michel Polnareff (born 3 July 1944) is a French singer-songwriter who rose to prominence in the 1960s. He is noted for integrating rock and pop elements into his early work. He wrote pop hits such as "La Poupée qui fait non" and "Love Me, Ple ...

at around the same time, as representing "the first French rock music that can be considered a musically competent and non-imitative incorporation of African-American and African-American-British influences". For Portis, Dutronc marks a break with the literary tradition of French ''

chanson A (, ; , ) is generally any Lyrics, lyric-driven French song. The term is most commonly used in English to refer either to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval music, medieval and Renaissance music or to a specific style of ...

'' in his creative use of the sounds, rather than just the syntax, of the language. "Et moi, et moi, et moi" is featured in the

coffee table book A coffee table book, also known as a cocktail table book, is an oversized, usually hard-covered book whose purpose is for display on a table intended for use in an area in which one entertains guests and which can serve to inspire conversation o ...

''1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die'', published in 2010. In 2011, it was included in a series of 41 articles on songs that "define France", published in ''

Le Figaro () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It was named after Figaro, a character in several plays by polymath Pierre Beaumarchais, Beaumarchais (1732–1799): ''Le Barbier de Séville'', ''The Guilty Mother, La Mère coupable'', ...

''.

Cover versions

The British band

Mungo Jerry Mungo Jerry (formerly known as Mungo Jerry Blues Band) are a British rock band formed by Ray Dorset in Ashford, Middlesex, in 1970. Experiencing their greatest success in the early 1970s, with a changing line-up always fronted by Dorset, the ...

reached number 3 in the UK singles chart in 1973 with an English-language reinterpretation of "Et moi, et moi, et moi" titled "

Alright, Alright, Alright "Alright, Alright, Alright" is a popular song and hit single by the British group Mungo Jerry, first released in 1973. Chart performance It was written by Jacques Dutronc, Jacques Lanzmann and Joe Strange and produced by Barry Murray and Mungo J ...

". This version is credited to Lanzmann, Dutronc and Joe Strange. It features on Mungo Jerry's 1974 album ''Long Legged Woman Dressed In Black''. The original version of the song was covered in 1988 by the Spanish synth-pop artist Captain B Hardt. A recording of the song also appears on the 1989 compilation ''I Can't Come'' by punk band the Snivelling Shits.

Yo La Tengo Yo La Tengo (Spanish language, Spanish for "I've got it"; also abbreviated as YLT) is an American indie rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan (guitars, piano, vocals), Georgia Hubley ...

bassist James McNew, under his solo moniker

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, released a cover of the song on his 1997 album ''A Plea for Tenderness''. In 2002,

Bruno Blum Bruno Blum (born October 4, 1960, Vichy, France) is a French singer songwriter, guitar player, music producer and musicologist sometimes nicknamed "Doc Reggae". He is mostly known for his work in the reggae, Caribbean music, rock music and Afric ...

included a parody of the song, titled "Et moi, et moi etc", on his album ''Think Différent'' (sic). In July 2013, the French singer-songwriter

-M- Matthieu Chedid (born 21 December 1971) is a French multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter. Chedid began his career as a session musician playing both acoustic and electric guitar. In the late 1990s, he rose to fame as a singer-songwriter ...

performed a version of "Et moi, et moi, et moi" for the website of ''

''. Israeli singer-songwriter

Ariel Zilber Ariel Zilber (; born September 23, 1943) is an Israeli singer-songwriter and composer. Biography Ariel Zilber was born in Tel Aviv. His mother, Bracha Zefira, was a popular singer of Yemenite Jewish origin and his father, Ben Ami Zilber, play ...

recorded a Hebrew version of the song, entitled ''Milyard Sinim'' ("One Billion Chinese") in 1988. Translated by Yehonatan Gefen, the Hebrew text is a fairly accurate reflection of the French, and the chorus is exact. Loosely retranslated into English: "One billion Chinese are alive / And me, who am I, what am I? / With my private life / And my tooth that's been loose for four days / I think about it and then I forget / Because that's how life is" ("J'y pense et puis j'oublie / C'est la vie c'est la vie"). Industrial rock band

KMFDM KMFDM (originally Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid, loosely translated by the band as "no pity for the majority") is a multinational industrial rock band from Hamburg led by Sascha Konietzko, who founded the band in 1984 as a performance art proje ...

included a cover version of "Et moi, et moi, et moi," entitled "Mini Mini Mini," on their 2005 album '' Hau Ruck''.

Track listing

Words by

and music by

Side A

#"Et moi, et moi, et moi"2:52 #"J'ai mis un tigre dans ma guitare"2:21

Side B

#"Mini, mini, mini"1:54 #"Les gens sont fous, les temps sont flous"3:03

Personnel

*Jacques Dutronc : voice, guitar, percussion *Hadi Kalafate : bass, percussion *Alain Le Govic (alias

Alain Chamfort Alain Chamfort (; born Alain Joseph Yves Le Govic; 2 March 1949) is a French singer of Breton origin. Life and career Chamfort was a promising pianist in his youth, and the piano became his instrument of choice. His first band The Dreamers h ...

) : piano, organ *Jean-Pierre Alarcen : guitar *Jacques Pasut : rhythm guitar *Michel Pelay : drums

References

External links

Video of Jacques Dutronc performing "Et moi, et moi, et moi" on the French TV show ''Le palmarès des chansons'', September 1966.
{{authority control Jacques Dutronc songs 1966 singles Songs written by Jacques Lanzmann Songs written by Jacques Dutronc 1966 songs Disques Vogue singles