As the music world commemorates the fifteenth anniversary of the death of Serge Gainsbourg, RFI Musique looks back over the career of this major artist who considered his art a "minor" one. Interestingly enough, the songs Gainsbourg wrote and composed in just over three decades – ranging from Le Poinçonneur des Lilas to Joe le taxi – do not stand as a monolithic whole. Nor did his personality for that matter! Gainsbourg happily flitted from one musical style to another, moving from jazz and classic French 'chanson' to groundbreaking New York funk on Love On The Beat.

The sheer diversity of Gainsbourg's work is apparent in the broad range of releases marking this fifteenth anniversary. The re-release of the original version of Live au Palace 1979, for instance, illustrates the impressive flexibility of his lyrics, capable of adapting to all musical styles - including authentic Jamaican reggae! In the course of his career, Gainsbourg's work was just as often scorned by the French public as it was admired, but this did not stop the Parisian songwriting genius gaining cult status abroad. The compilation Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited acknowledges this aspect of the late great Serge, featuring covers of his classics recorded by Anglo-Saxon stars such as Placebo, Portishead and Franz Ferdinand. Meanwhile, the 98 tracks in the special boxed set Mister Melody remind us just how often Gainsbourg's work was honoured by other singers in his lifetime. A fitting tribute to “L'homme à tête de choux”.