Artist: Jacques Brel Genre(s):
Other
Discography:
Ne Me Quitte Pas Year: 1988
Tracks: 11
Les Marquises Year: 1977
Tracks: 12
J'arrive Year: 1968
Tracks: 19
Olympia 64 Year: 1964
Tracks: 15
Olympia 61 Year: 1961
Tracks: 15
La Valse a Mille Temps Year: 1958
Tracks: 18
Singer/songwriter Jacques Brel created and performed a catalogue of literate, paying attention, and theatrical songs that brought him a large, devoted next in France. His consultation eventually extended internationally, making him a major influence on English-speaking writers and performers including Leonard Cohen and David Bowie, piece translations of his songs were recorded by a wide of the mark range of performers from the Kingston Trio to Frank Sinatra.
Natural in Brussels, Belgium, on April 8, 1929, Brel was the son of Romain Brel, world Health Organization worked in an import-export strong, simply by and by became co-director of a company that manufactured composition board cartons, and Elisabeth (Lambertine) Brel. He began playacting the guitar at the long time of 15. After quitting school, he took a job in his father's found in August 1947. During this period of time, he became progressively interested in music, beginning to execute patch a member of a church young grouping and starting to write his own songs. In 1952, he kickoff performed on local wireless, and in February 1953 he was signed by Philips Records, which released his debut single, "La Foire"/"Il Y A," in March. Its modest success lED to professional bookings locally and, presently, a move to Paris, where he built up a following in the clubs. In July 1954, he made his starting time appearance at the prestigious Olympia Theater in Paris, followed by his kickoff French duty tour, and at the terminal of the year Philips released his debut record album, a nine-song, 10" LP called
Jacques Brel et Ses Chansons. More touring followed, and he achieved a commercial breakthrough in 1956 when his strain "Quand On N'A Pas Que l'Amour" (later altered into English as "If We Only Have Love"), released on an EP, became a stumble, reaching number triad in the French charts. His subsequent LP releases were
Jacques Brel 2 (1957),
Jacques Brel 3 (1958), and
Jacques Brel 4 (1959).
In 1960, Brel earned a U.S. release with
American Début on Columbia Records, a compilation of Philips tracks. In France, he switched from Philips to the late formed Barclay Records in March 1962, his kickoff LP release for the label being the live record album
A l'Olympia 1962, followed by his first studio album in four-spot age,
Jacques Brel Accompagne Pas François Rauber et Son Orchestra. After playacting primarily in French-speaking territories, he was decorous a star oecumenical and touring internationally much of the twelvemonth. In February 1963, he made his U.S. playacting debut at Carnegie Hall in New York. American poet and isaac Bashevis Singer Rod McKuen began writing English lyrics to Brel's songs, and the Kingston Trio recorded "Seasons in the Sun," McKuen's adaptation of a strain Brel had highborn "Le Moribond," on their
Time to Think LP in 1964. That year in France,
Jacques Brel, Vol. 6 and another lively record album,
Olympia 64, appeared.
In 1965, Reprise Records licensed tracks from Barclay for a U.S. release called
Jacques Brel, and Brel returned to Carnegie Hall on December 4. In 1966, Damita Jo recorded "If You Go Away," McKuen's adaptation of the Brel composition "Ne Me Quitte Pas," and it reached the charts. The pensive strain, with its alternating happy and sad lyrics and riotous tune, became a pop standard recorded by oodles of singers, including Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra, and Neil Diamond. Also in 1966, Judy Collins put an English-language adaptation of Brel's "La Colombe" ("The Dove") on her
In My Life album (Joan Baez covered the same strain the following twelvemonth on her album
Joan), and Glenn Yarbrough sang "The Women" ("Les Biches") on his LP
The Lonely Things. Philips Records, meanwhile, weighed in with an American Brel compilation,
The Poetic World of Jacques Brel.
Brel announced his retreat from concert sour in 1966, gift a last series of shows in Paris at the Olympia in the fall, just afterward that he had 6 months of performances internationally to accomplish. These included appearances in the U.S., where Reprise issued
Encore, some other digest drawn from Barclay, and Vanguard Records had
Le Formidable Jacques Brel. His last concert came on May 16, 1967. He was not, however, reticent from other kinds of playing: he continued to record, his following LP befittingly being titled Jacques Brel '67 (though it off out to be his last new studio album for a 10); he starred in his first feature film, the nonmusical dramatic event
Les Risques du Metièr, in front the end of the year (with nine more than movies to follow through 1973, some featuring his music); and he as well off to the legitimate microscope stage, translating and taking the in the lead role in a French production of the American musical Man of la Mancha that open in Brussels on October 4, 1968, and moved to Paris, where it ran from December until June 1969. (A tramp album was released.)
Overseas, meanwhile, his name was given greater prominence by a New York stage production in which he did non appear, an off-Broadway revue of his songs that, keying cancelled of conjecture about his decision to stop touring, was called Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. It open at the Village Gate in Greenwich Village on January 22, 1968. Songwriter Mort Shuman and dramatist Eric Blau had translated Brel's lyrics more close than McKuen, conveyance in English the pathos and mental capacity of his story-songs, and the effect was overwhelming -- the review played closely 2,000 performances, becoming one of the longest-running off-Broadway shows in history. Columbia Records released a double-LP box set of the complete show as an original regorge album. The revue was revived on Broadway, in 1972 and 1981, and off-Broadway in 2006, and it was off into a celluloid in 1975, with Brel himself fashioning a cameo show. The success of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris increased Brel's profile in English-speaking countries. In England, American expatriate Scott Walker's recording of "Jackie" (aka "La Chanson de Jacky") from the show hit the charts the month before the New York first step, reaching the Top 40. (Marc Almond's revival, drawn from his tribute record album
Jacques, made the British Top 20 in 1991.) "Jackie" was included on Walker's debut solo LP,
Robert Scott, which besides featured Brel's "Mathilde," "Dutch capital," and "My Death" ("La Mort"), and Walker likewise put Brel songs on his subsequent albums
George C. Scott 2 (1968) and
Robert Falcon Scott 3 (1969). Other British Brel fans included David Bowie, world Health Organization released a variant of "Capital of The Netherlands" as a B-side individual in 1973 piece likewise performing "My Death" in concert, and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, which highborn an album after Brel's birdcall "Adjacent" ("Au Suivant") in 1973. In the U.S., Judy Collins recorded "Marieke" for her
Whales & Nightingales album in 1970; Frank Sinatra position "I'm Not Afraid" (a McKuen lyric for "Fils De") on the B-side of a individual in 1971; Dionne Warwick scored a chart launching with "If We Only Have Love" in 1972; and at the end of 1973 Terry Jacks released a revival of "Seasons in the Sun" that hit number one in both the U.S. and the U.K., followed by a chart launching with his version of "If You Go Away."
Brel himself, meantime, continued to seem in French films, fashioning his screenwriting and directorial debut with
Franz in 1972 and unforgettably taking his last star role opposite stone-faced Lino Ventura in Edouard Molinaro's 1973 pitch-black clowning
L'Emmerdeur (released in the U.S. with the title
A Pain in the A-), which was remade in 1981 with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau as
Pal Buddy. In July 1974, having bought a yacht, Brel lay out off on what was intended to be a circumnavigation of the globe. But in October, while in the Canary Islands, he was diagnosed with lung malignant neoplastic disease. He went to Brussels for an surgical procedure to take out role of his left wing lung. After recovering, he returned to his gravy boat and continued on his journey. In November 1975, he reached the Marquesas Islands, where he decided to stay. He returned to France in July 1977 to book a new album,
Brel, issued in November. The LP became a monumental hit, reportedly marketing 650,000 copies on its first day of firing and eventually topping 2 million copies. Suffering a return of cancer, Brel once again returned to France in July 1978 for intervention, simply he died trey months later at the geezerhood of 49. In France, Brel's reputation as one of the major singers and songwriters of the 20th one C is procure. In the English-speaking world, his influence is limited by the speech barrier and by his musical tasting in traditional pop and nightspot, kinda than the prevalent fashion of the sec half of the century, rock candy. Nevertheless, his lyrics, delving into personal, dark, and adult subjects, ar in keeping with the tendency toward forthrightness and sincerity of popular songwriting from Bob Dylan on and regular anticipate that vogue. As such, Brel is something of a French sr. brother to the likes of Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and all the confessional singer/songwriters world Health Organization followed them. At the same time, his work, as translated into often bowdlerized English (peculiarly in the McKuen versions), has extended his influence as a songwriter across genres. In addition to those already mentioned, the list of performers wHO have recorded Brel's songs is an astonishingly spacious selection of stone, pop, wind, and country artists, including Karen Akers, Shirley Bassey, Acker Bilk, Ray Bryant, Glen Campbell, Ray Conniff, John Denver, Dion, Celine Dion, the Fortunes, Robyn Hitchcock, Shirley Horn, Julio Iglesias, Jack Jones, Cyndi Lauper, Brenda Lee, Ute Lemper, Vera Lynn, Al Martino, Paul Mauriat, Helen Merrill, Ronnie Milsap, Nana Mouskouri, Olivia Newton-John, Freda Payne, Pearls Before Swine, Mitch Ryder, the Seekers, Dusty Springfield, Bobby Vinton, Andy Williams, and Nancy Wilson.
