While vocals were credited to Plastic Bertrand, they were actually performed by producer/songwriter Lou Deprijck (see below).
Australian singles charts:
Ça Plane Pour Moi entered the Kent Music Report on 6 November 1978 and peaked at #2. It was #19 on the Top 100 of 1978.
Album:
The song is on An 1 which entered the Kent Music Report album charts on 8 January 1979 and peaked at #48.
Songwriters:
Lou Deprijck, Yvan Lacomblez
Producer:
Lou Deprijck
Record label of Australian release:
RCA Victor
Who actually sang this song? Was it Plastic Bertrand or Lou Deprijck?
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Songfacts says:
Ça Plane Pour Moi roughly translates as “This Life’s for Me.” Besides the original French, there is also an English version, Jet Boy Jet Girl, by Elton Motello, which was released around the same time.
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Ça Plane Pour Moi was co-written and produced by producer/songwriter Lou Deprijck. Later Deprijck took Plastic Bertrand to a Brussels court saying that he wanted to be recognised as the performing artist as well. He allegedly performed the vocals on the hit because Plastic Bertrand didn’t make it to the studio the day they were recording it. However Deprijck had little evidence to support this claim, while Bertrand had a signed contract and his name on the record-label. The judge fined him for what he described as a “groundless and vexatious” suit.
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In a 2010 interview with Belgian newspaper Le Soir, Roger Jouret finally admitted that Lou Deprijck performed the song’s vocals. “I don’t mind saying it wasn’t my voice,” he said. “I wanted to sing but he wouldn’t let me into the studio.”
Bertrand added that Deprijck had asked him to “keep his mouth shut in exchange for 0.5% of the royalties, promising that he’d let me use my voice on another version, which, of course, he never did.” He went on to say: “I’m the victim. I wanted to sing but he wouldn’t let me into the studio. This is going to dog me till my dying days. I’m really fed up.”
Jouret’s admission came a day after a linguist commissioned by a judge during a long-standing legal saga concerning whose vocals appear on the track, concluded that the Brussels-born Jouret’s accent did not match the distinctive twang on the record.
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Read more: www.songfacts.com/facts/plastic-bertrand/ca-plane-pour-moi
Lyrics:
Wam! Bam! Mon chat, splatch
Gît sur mon lit a bouffé sa langue en buvant dans mon whisky
Quant à moi, peu dormi, vidé, brimé
J’ai dû dormir dans la gouttière, où j’ai eu un flash (hou-hou-oou-oou!)
En quatre couleur
Click for full lyrics
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