"Les Sucettes" is a Frenchpop song written by Serge Gainsbourg and first recorded by France Gall in 1966. One of Gall's biggest hits, it was an unusually risqué song for its time, though in performing it she was unaware of the fact.
Meaning
"Les Sucettes" is, on the surface, a yé-yé-style song about a girl named Annie who likes aniseed-flavoured lollipops; much of the lyrical content plays up the homonyms of "Annie" and "anis". But Gainsbourg's lyric also contains playful double meanings referring to oral sex, such as a line about barley sugar running down Annie's throat. The very noun for lollypop in French, "sucette", is the substantivised verb "sucer", sucking – so that the title and the refrain are far more evocative in French than in the English translation. A possible translation to preserve the innuendo would be "Annie loves suckers". The song also features a direct double entendre, stating that Annie has lollipops "pour quelques pennies", which can also be heard as "pour quelques pénis".
Music video
A film clip for the song was directed by Jean-Christophe Averty for the TV showAu risque de vous plaire. It featured props playing on the sexual references, with lollipops that were somewhat phallic rather than the traditional circle shape, interspersed with cutaways of young women suggestively sucking on lollipops. Another video was filmed, featuring Gall herself in a schoolgirl uniform inside a house, singing the song.
Reaction
Gall, aged 18, did not understand the double meaning of the song when she recorded it. By Gall's account she did not realize until later why the filming of the clip attracted so many visitors to the set. She was extremely upset upon finally learning the truth about the song's double meaning — "mortified, hiding herself away for weeks, refusing to face anyone". Gall said that she had sung Gainsbourg's songs "with an innocence of which I'm proud. I was pained to then learn that he had turned the situation to his advantage, mocking me." In a 2001 television interview, Gall said that she felt "betrayed by the adults around me." Gainsbourg called the song "the most daring song of the century" in an interview with the magazineRock and Folk.
Covers
Gainsbourg recorded his own version, with a psychedelic arrangement, on the 1969 album Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg.
Another version of the song was by the BelgianEurodance singer Kim Kay. It was released in 2000 on EMI as the fourth single and as well as the opening track from her only compilation album, Hits!. It is a Eurodance song that was written by Serge Gainsbourg and produced by Phil Sterman and Lov Cook.
