Ca Plane Pour Moi
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Artist:
(part 1)
So, right when the "Elton Motello" song "Jet Boy Jet Girl" starts to get a little attention in comes the bands producer with a lyricist who is there to rework the song and make it more palatable to the french ear. In order to do this they literally take the song away from Alan Ward, they also take his drummer, Roger Jouret, who is thought to be a better looking front man and rename him "Plastic Bertrand". His introduction to the world comes in 1977 with the song _"Ca Plane Pour Moi"_. A reworked "JB/JG" using nonsense french phrasing for lyrics and the same underlying song structure to back it up. It becomes a major hit throughout Europe and eventually builds to that of "cult" status in New Wave and Pop Punk circles.
Plastic Bertrand Ca Plane Pour Moi 1977
Uploaded by paradixman
It eventually came out only recently in 2006 that the lyrics to "Ca Plane Pour Moi" where not only written by the hired lyricist, Lou Deprijk, but sung by him as well. With all the royalties going directly to him and "Plastic Bertrand" seeing nothing. "PB" would go on to have a successful musical career around Europe for much of the eighties and nineties.
As for Alan Ward, he was recently quoted as having this to say about the whole situation:
"We have all been ripped off at some point in our lives but judging by the emails I receive my lyric has touched many more people and seems to ring a chord in many more hearts than the French one will ever do. That's why I wrote it. If I was meant to be rich it would have happened. But I am rich in the knowledge that my thoughts will never disappear."
This is a Filling in the Gaps post.
There will be other versions posted in comments.
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Comments (16)
Thank you so much for clearing up the confusion! This has bothered me for years. I have no idea why I suddenly wanted to know which came first "Jet Boy Jet Girl or Ca Plane Pour Moi", but it's especially interesting now that a major soft drink company have used the latter in an ad campaign! You have given a clear and helpful history. Many thanks.
(I hope Alan Ward is still as philosophical)
It's been a while since I visited this post, I noticed a problem that must have occured when Mog changed their interface (twice since I posted this!). The song in the player was another version not by Platic Bertrand as it was labeled. I've made the change back to the intended version, which is what was heard in the video.
Welcome to Mog by the way, Thanks for the comment!
I think this song is in the movie European Vacation when they are running around the museum or airport or something.