Chick Habit

"Laisse tomber les filles" (English: "Leave the girls alone" i.e., "stop messing around with the girls") is a French song written by Serge Gainsbourg and originally performed by France Gall in 1964.

The message of the song can be summed up as "you'll get yours". A girl whose heart has been broken addresses the boy who has done the heart-breaking, warning him that if he doesn't "leave the girls alone", he'll end up heart-broken himself. The contrast between the dark tone of this song and the more upbeat mood of its contemporaries - the yé-yé pop style - is commented on by Gilles Verlant:

France Gall's vindictive lyrics are supported by the well-known jazz band led by Gogo (the same group with whom Gainsbourg was recording at the time). The song's emphasis on brass and percussion is regarded as being integral to its success. Fondness within the English-speaking world for the "French pop sound" makes the song continue to be popular to this day. It was also recently covered by the French singer Mareva Galanter in an explicit reference to the Yé-yé style. The song is also covered by Fabienne Delsol on her first solo album, No Time For Sorrows (2004). The San Francisco-based yé-yé revival band, Rue '66, covered the tune for their debut in 2011.

The song was a big hit in France, peaking at number 4 according to Billboard Magazine.

April March recorded two covers of the song in 1995: one with the original French lyrics, and the other as "Chick Habit" with English lyrics written by March.

"Chick Habit" is played during the opening credits of the 1999 campy teen comedy But I'm a Cheerleader by Jamie Babbit. Both versions of the song, first English and then French, are played over images of China Girls during the end credits of the movie Death Proof (2007) by Quentin Tarantino. It was also used as the backing music to television advertisements for the Renault Twingo in the UK and in France in 2008.

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Wikipedia