Yesterday the Belgian pop music world was rocked by the shocking revelation that Plastic Bertrand did not sing the 1977 hit song “Ça Plane Pour Moi” — or any of the songs on his first four albums.
In case you’ve been living well east of Luxembourg since 1977, here’s the 411: Plastic Bertrand is an over-the-top Euro pop performer whose “Ça Plane Pour Moi”, an unintelligible French-language redux of Elton Motello’s gay punk anthem “Jet Boy Jet Girl”, gained cult status in the United States.
After years of denials Bertrand admitted to Belgian newspaper Le Soir yesterday that the real singer was actually the song’s producer and composer Lou Deprijk, according to the AFP:
“I’m the victim. I wanted to sing, but he would not let me access the studio,” Bertrand said about the real singer behind the hit single, Lou Deprijk. “He asked me to keep my mouth shut in exchange for 0.5 percent of the rights, and promised he would make a new version with my voice, which of course he never did.”
So why did Deprijk get the shaft all these years? Apparently he’s not much of a looker. “I was even prepared to shave my moustache but the record label preferred this guy with his punk look,” he sniffed to The Guardian.
And so it goes… let’s relive the many versions of “Ça Plane Pour Moi” after the jump.
“Jet Boy, Jet Girl” by Elton Motello
The Kim Wilde version of “Ça Plane Pour Moi”.
The Vampire Weekend version of “Ça Plane Pour Moi”.
The Presidents of the United States of America version of “Ça Plane Pour Moi” as featured in a Pepsi commercial from a few years ago.
The Sonic Youth version of “Ça Plane Pour Moi”.
The Nouvelle Vague version of “Ça Plane Pour Moi”.
UPDATE (1:30 p.m.) The Telex version of “Ça Plane Pour Moi” (thanks to reader Ben for the tip!)
the redux was by elton motello
not lou deprijk/plastic bertrand