B-side "Pogo Pogo" Format 7" Length 2:57 | Released December 1977 Genre Punk rock Label AMC
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"Ça plane pour moi" ([sa plan puʁ mwa]) is a 1977 song by the Belgian singer Plastic Bertrand. Despite being credited to Plastic Bertrand, the record's producer Lou Deprijck states that he performed the vocals, although Bertrand disputes this. The song was composed by Yvan Lacomblez. "Jet Boy, Jet Girl", an adaptation recorded in November 1977 by Elton Motello, has the same backing track. The song was covered by many artists, though Plastic Bertrand's original recording was the most successful, reaching No. 8 on the UK charts in the summer of 1978. While mainly regarded as a punk song, "Ça plane pour moi" has also been described as parody punk and as new wave.
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"Ça plane pour moi" is a French idiomatic expression which is best translated as "everything's going well for me" (literally: "it is gliding for me").
Background
"Ça plane pour moi" was conceived as a pastiche, a caricature of the punk movement. Lou Deprijck explained:
The music was recorded by Mike Butcher (guitar), John Valcke (bass) and Bob Dartsch (drums), and the song was released as a B-side to "Pogo-Pogo" (another song with lyrics written by Lacomblez; both "Pogo-Pogo" and "Jet Boy, Jet Girl" had English lyrics written by Alan Ward for the Elton Motello single) which was chosen to launch the solo career of Plastic Bertrand. Due to the success of the B-side, it was decided, when re-pressing the single, to switch both sides. It took two hours to record "Ça plane pour moi" and "Pogo-Pogo".
Composition
"Ça plane pour moi" is a three-chord rocker which features nonsensical French lyrics and occasionally some English words. Steve Huey from AllMusic describes the song melody as a "four-note hook which sounds like something straight out of an early Beach Boys or Four Seasons song" that Roger Jouret (Plastic Bertrand) sings in a "dead-on falsetto". This melody is created by "mildly distorted guitars, plus a steadily pumping rhythm section and an old-time rock & roll-style saxophone" which, according to him, is "hardly used for anything other than rhythmic accompaniment". He also qualifies Jouret's voice as "cartoonish". Its voice "stays in a monotone as he recites all the lyrics".
Chart performance
Although its lyrics are sung in French, "Ça plane pour moi" became a smash hit in several European countries, peaking at No. 19 in Austria, No. 12 in Sweden, No. 11 in Bertrand's native Belgium, No. 8 in UK, No. 6 in Germany, No. 4 in Ireland, and No. 2 in Netherlands (behind Boney M.'s "Rivers of Babylon"). It also topped the Swiss Charts for one week and the French charts for 2 consecutive weeks. In Oceania, the song peaked at No. 7 in New Zealand, and No. 2 in Australia in early January 1979.
On the other side of the Atlantic, "Ça plane pour moi" entered the Billboard Hot 100, a feat for a French-language song because only "Dominique" by the Belgian singer The Singing Nun and "Je t'aime... moi non plus" by French singers Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin had achieved such performance in the United States before this time. "Je t'aime... moi non plus" had peaked at No. 58 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Ça plane pour moi" eventually reached No. 47. It also peaked at No. 58 in Canada.
"Ça plane pour moi" has sold over 900,000 copies around the world and is regarded as a "punk-new wave-pop classic".