Remembering Jacques Brel, born in this day in 1929 (1929-1978).

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Jacques Brel, born on 8 April 1929 in Schaerbeek (Belgium) and died on 9 October 1978 in Bobigny (France), was a Belgian singer-songwriter, poet, actor, and director.

Jacques Brel is considered an icon and one of the greatest interpreters of French song, thanks to titles such as I do not leave me, Amsterdam, when we have only love, the waltz at a thousand time, these people, Vesoul, the bourgeois, Madeleine or Mathilde. Jacques Brel sold more than 25 million records.

The artist, at the top of his popularity, however abandoned the singing tour in 1967. Although he still recorded a few records and climbs to the scene the man of Mancha, he then devoted himself to the cinema, for which he shoots as an actor a dozen films, two of whom he writes and makes, Franz and the Far West (retained in the official selection at the 1973 Cannes Festival).

Jacques Brel remains an important representative of French song abroad. His songs, mostly recorded in French, are an inspiration for many English -speaking interpreters like David Bowie, Death Shuman, Alex Harvey, Leonard Cohen, Marc Almond and Rod McKuen.

Several of his songs are also translated into English, notably in the United States, interpreted by Ray Charles, Judy Collins, John Denver, the Kingston Trio, Nina Simone, Frank Sinatra, Scott Walker, Sting, Wyclef Jean, The Sensal Alex Harvey Band or Andy Williams.

Jazz singer Nina Simone interpreted a personal version of never leaving me. The British singer Sting sang in French does not leave me and I do not know in public.

Jacques Brel “Ces gens-là” | Archive INA

Jacques BREL sings “Ces gens-là”.

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Jacques Brel most known songs

Au printemps
Quand on n'a que l'amour
Ne me quitte pas
L'Ivrogne
Amsterdam
La Valse à mille temps
Au suivant
Madeleine
Les Bourgeois
La Fanette
Le Plat Pays
Marieke
Rosa
Les Vieux
Mathilde
Les Flamandes
Les Bonbons
La Chanson de Jacky
Jef
Ces gens-là
J'arrive
Vesoul
La Chanson des vieux amants
Bruxelles
La Quête
Orly
Voir un ami pleurer
Les Marquises

Songs translated and adapted into Dutch

A native of Brussels, Brel called himself a Flemish singer in French and sang some of his songs in Dutch, most of the translations being by Ernst van Altena:

De apen (Les singes) (1961)
Men vergeet niets (On n'oublie rien) (1961)
Marieke (1961), dont une partie des paroles originales est déjà en néerlandais.
Laat me niet alleen (Ne me quitte pas) (1961)
Als men niets dan liefde heeft (Quand on n'a que l'amour) (1961) morceau inédits[58]
Mijn vlakke land (Le Plat Pays) (1962)
De burgerij (Les Bourgeois) (1962)
Rosa (1962)
De nuttelozen van de nacht (Les paumés du petit matin) (1962).

Jacques Brel – Ne me quitte pas (1972)