When the version with Bardot was recorded, the French press reported that it was an "unedited recording" of physical intimacy ("{{lang|fr|[[wikt:audio vérité|audio vérité]]}}"). ''[[France Dimanche]]'' said the "groans, sighs, and Bardot's little cries of pleasure [give] the impression you're listening to two people making love".<ref name="simmons" /> The first time Gainsbourg played the song in public was in a Paris restaurant immediately after he and Birkin recorded their version. Birkin said that "as it began to play all you could hear were the knives and forks being put down. 'I think we have a hit record', [Gainsbourg] said."<ref name="simmons" /><ref name="telegraph" />
The songsounds containsmade [[orgasmic]] sounds fromby Birkin, which caused itthe song to be banned from radio in Spain, Sweden, Brazil, the United Kingdom,<ref name="omm" /> and Italy,<ref name="italy" /> banned from radio play before [[Watershed (broadcasting)|11 pm]] in France, and not played by many radio stations in the United States.<ref name="evene" /> The song was officially denounced by the [[Vatican City|Vatican]] and its newspaper, ''[[L'Osservatore Romano]]'';<ref name="omm">{{cite news|url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/the10/story/0,,1487369,00.html|title=The 10 most x-rated records|last=Spencer|first=Neil|date=22 May 2005|work=Observer Music Monthly|publisher=Guardian Newspapers|access-date=3 August 2010|___location=London}}</ref><ref name="italy">{{cite book|last1=Cheles|first1=Luciano|last2=Sponza|first2=Lucio|title=The art of persuasion: political communication in Italy from 1945 to the 1990s|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vy1NMicVUEEC&pg=PA331|year=2001|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=0-7190-4170-8|page=331}}</ref> one report even claimed that the Vatican had excommunicated the record executive who released it in Italy.<ref name="zwerin" /> Birkin said that Gainsbourg had called the Pope "our greatest PR man".<ref name="telegraph" /> In Italy, the head of their record label was jailed for offending public morality.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/jane-birkin-actress-and-singer-dies-aged-76-snwhcm3ql | website=The Times | title= The Times Register: obituary Jane Birkin, English-born singer and actress |date=17 July 2023 |access-date= 28 October 2024 }}</ref>
Birkin said in 2004 that, "It wasn't a rude song at all. I don't know what all the fuss was about. The English just didn't understand it. I'm still not sure they know what it means."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/aug/15/popandrock1|title=Serge needed all the love he could get|last=Solomons|first=Jason|date=15 August 2004|newspaper=[[The Observer]]|access-date=3 August 2010|___location=London}}</ref> When Gainsbourg later went to [[Jamaica]] to record with [[Sly and Robbie]], they initially did not get on well with Gainsbourg, but their mood changed immediately upon learning that "Je t'aime" was his work.<ref name="simmons" />
