Serge Gainsbourg - Comic Strip (1997)

Serge Gainsbourg's remarkable pop hits are best represented on Comic Strip, an indispensable set collecting 20 tracks recorded between 1966 and 1969. In addition to the lushly erotic "Je T'Aime...Moi Non Plus" -- Gainsbourg's best-known record -- Comic Strip includes the title track and "Bonnie and Clyde," his collaborations with Brigitte Bardot, as well as "Initials B.B.," a sweeping paean to his duet partner, "the most beautiful woman on earth." Other highlights include "Chatterton" (a bouncy celebration of suicide), "Torrey Canyon" (a prescient warning against threats to the environment), and the self-explanatory "Soixante Neuf Annee Erotique" ("69 Erotic Year"). -- Jason Ankeny