B.B.

AMG Review of B.B.

Stewart Mason
All Music Guide

B.B., originally released in 1964 and given a straight, unadorned reissue in 1999, has one of the all-time great come-hither album covers, a photo that manages to be absolutely pornographic while showing nothing but the blonde bombshell's hair, part of her face, and one naked shoulder. However, the contents are much less salacious. Bardot's second album, following 1962's imaginatively titled Brigitte Bardot, B.B. is largely a collection of second-rate songs. The two exceptions are Bardot's slinky rendering of the early ossa nova standard "Maria Ninguem" (Maria Nobody), also recorded by the likes of Joăo Gilberto, Herbie Mann, and, incongruously, Cliff Richard, and the bouncy single "Moi Je Joue." Bardot would not fully connect with her recording career until 1965, when she began recording the delightfully bizarre series of singles with Serge Gainsbourg that would eventually make her name as a singer.