"Et moi, et moi, et moi" | ||||
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Single by Jacques Dutronc | ||||
Released | August 1966 | |||
Format | 45 | |||
Recorded | 1966 | |||
Genre | French rock | |||
Length | 2:52 | |||
Label | Disques Vogue | |||
Songwriter(s) | Jacques Lanzmann, Jacques Dutronc | |||
Producer(s) | Unknown | |||
Jacques Dutronc singles chronology | ||||
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"Et moi, et moi, et moi" is the debut single by French singer-songwriter Jacques Dutronc, released in 1966. It is featured on his self-titled debut album.
The record came about as the result of rivalry between the two artistic directors at Disques Vogue, Christian Fechner and Jacques Wolfsohn. According to legend, Wolfsohn, who had previously promoted Françoise Hardy, used to amuse himself by taking pot-shots at Fechner's Revox tape-machine with a rifle from his office window. Wolfsohn wanted to better Fechner's success with the hippy-influenced singer-songwriter Antoine. He asked Jacques Dutronc, at that time his assistant and a songwriter at Vogue, and the novelist Jacques Lanzmann 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 and The Kinks.
"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.