3:02
L'Étonnant Serge Gainsbourg, 1961
Written by Serge Gainsbourg
Gainsbourg wrote this song as a tribute to Jacque Prévert’s famous poem "Les Feuilles Mortes." Draped in smoky, detached French cool and softly speak-crooning his baritone over an understated melancholy jazzy arrangement, he comes off here as the very model of a French Leonard Cohen. Even the lyrics are extremely evocative of Cohen's work such as "Famous Blue Raincoat:" "Cette chanson était la tienne / C'était ta préférée, je crois" and "Les amours mortes / N'en finissent pas de mourir."