Not only was Brigitte Bardot an actress, she also got caught up in the French Ye Ye music craze of the mid 60s. In fact she recorded music sporadically from the 50s onward, but this cd compilation does a fine job of spotlighting the beginnings of the heyday of Bardot's Ye Ye phase circa 1963 and 1964 when she first began recording some Serge Gainsbourg songs, along with the jazz inspired pop that others like Sheila were also doing and the soundtrack music similar to what Catherine Spaak was recording at the time.

With arrangements from the likes of Claude Bolling (a name you see on many French recordings and best known for his jazz meets classical albums) and Alain Goraguer (he was a jazz pianist before he became an arranger and a composer for the likes of France Gall and Bardot, and he later recorded the soundtrack for the sci-fi animated film called La Planète Sauvage in 1973), and tunes written by the likes of Jean Max Riviere and Gerard Bourgeois (Riviere would later record Tiens! C'est toi - not included here - with Bardot), Bardot paints a picture of the Ye Ye sex kitten in these early 1960s recordings.

And while most of the songs here were composed by Jean Max Riviere and Gerard Bourgeois, one of the highlights here indeed is Bardot's versions of the Serge Gainsbourg songs L'Appareil à Sous which was originally from Gainsbourg's La Javanaise album and was also covered by Stereo Total on their Monokini album. Stereo Total must've had a Bardot fetish because they also covered her tune Moi Je Joue (also heard here) on their Oh Ah! album.

For the Gainsbourg collectors, Bardot does two others here written by him called Les Omnibus and Je Me Donne À Que Me Plaît both of which are more playful and jazzy - but truly the best of these three is her version of L'Appareil à Sous.

Of the most striking tunes found here, the pop oriented material is the most upbeat, like the aforementioned Moi Je Joue, Ca Pourrait Changer (Don't Ever Change Your Mind) and the phenomenal Jean-Claude Massoulier & André Popp tune Je Danse Donc Je Suis (which translates as I Dance, Therefore I Am). Bardot also did her fair share of dixieland jazz styled tunes and the best here in that style include Les Amis de la Musique, C'est Rigolo, and Faite Pour Dormir.

Bardot works the mellow bent with tunes like La Madrague, Une Histoire de Plage, A la Fin de l'Été, and a cover of Carlos Lyra's Maria Ninguen proving she could work the mellow beat as well as Francoise Hardy or Catherine Spaak.

To end the compilation, the playful soundtrack tune Ah! Les P'tites Femmes is included, sung by Bardot and Jeanne Moreau from their film Viva Maria! which was a Louis Malle film. And although the later material Bardot did with Gainsbourg in the later 1960s is not to be found here, this is an excellent Bardot compilation.