To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the death of Serge Gainsbourg in 2011, Universal Music has launched a limited edition collection as a tribute to the French singer, composer and poet.

The complete works – and more

The box-set contains 20 CDs featuring 270 recordings made by Serge Gainsbourg between 1958 and 1991. That's 16 original albums, one album of singles and duets, one album of radio and TV archives, one album of songs for films and one of music for films. There's also a portfolio with 20 photos and a 60-page superbly illustrated colour booklet (biography, excerpts from interviews and analysis of Gainsbourg's work).

A CD entirely devoted to radio and television archives

Among these gems, CD no. 18 contains 14 titles taken from radio and television archives from between 1957 and 1974 including several that have never been released. “Mes petites odalisques”, “La cigale et la fourmi”, “Ballade d’un fat majeur”, “La javanaise”, “Chanson pour Tézigue”, “Une petite tasse d’anxiété” in a duet with Gillian Hills, “Le temps des yoyos”, “Ne dis rien”, a duet with Anna Karina, Chopin's “The Farewell Waltz” played by Serge Gainsbourg, “J’ai mal à la tête” and “Les petits pavés” were all found in the Ina archives and enable the listener to revisit Gainsbourg's work and discover a whole new side to the artist..

“I have a photo of Chopin there on my piano. Because he looks as funny as I do… He looks as if he judges me very severely. When I'm looking for a melody, I look at him, and he looks as if he's saying – we could put a speech bubble – ‘perfectly dreadful’. And when the melody is quite pretty: ‘Possibly. At a pinch’.  He's my conscience.” Serge Gainsbourg talking to Jacques Busnel – “Les quatre vérités”, July 30, 1967