David Bowie’s fascination with the songs of Jacques Brel led him to cover a number of Brel songs, as well as influenced his musical and performance choices.
Tag Archives: jacques brel songs
Collecting Brel (Vol. 2) – The Album
Here’s Volume Two in my series of English language Jacques Brel covers!
Litanies Pour Un Retour By Jacques Brel: English Translation
Below is my poetic translation of ‘Litanies Pour Un Retour’ by Jacques Brel. Particular attention has been paid to keeping the rhyme and flow of the piece while retaining the poetic origins of the French lyric.
Jacques Brel – No. 5 (Marieke)
Two years after Brel’s fourth album, which was a striking collection of juxtaposed pieces including the hits ‘Ne Me Quitte Pas’ and ‘La Valse A Mille Temps’, Brel released No. 5.
Collecting Brel (Vol. 1) – The Album
While working towards my ambition of translating the music of Jacques Brel, I began recording in an attempt to update Brel’s music for a modern, English-speaking audience…
The Top 5 Jacques Brel Covers
Jacques Brel is one of the most covered French language singers of all time. In this list are my top five covers of Jacques Brel’s music.
Jacques Brel – No. 4 (La Valse A Mille Temps)
Brel’s fourth ‘album’, often referred to as “La Valse A Mille Temps”, was released in 1959. It was Brel’s first album to be released after a legendary performance at the Olympia in Paris which brought Brel much critical acclaim.
Brel’s Albums Ranked Worst To Best
Here are my highly subjective thoughts about Brel’s best (and worst) albums! To rank the albums, each track was scored out of 5, and then the total score was divided by the amount of tracks on the album, and a point was taken or added depending on the album’s overall consistency.
Jacques Brel – No. 12
This 1962 live EP is taken from the the album A l’Olympia ’61 was Brel’s last EP to be released on the Phillips label. It came with two very distinct covers, as you can see from above…
Beyond Coincidence: Jacques Brel & David Bowie
When you’re a big fan of two of the most influential artists of the 20th century (and perhaps all time?) you start reading too much into their similarities…