Written by Jaques Brel, a great singer songwriter of North African origin who was brought up in Scharbeek Brussels. He rose to fame in Paris with the great artists of the day.

He wrote a lot of songs, many of these were used by other artists with great success.

A bloke I know (a big cheese in the music biz) reckons about ten percent of his favourite modern songs either came directly from, or were heavily influenced by this great man.

To see Brel at his best seek out a video of him singing 'Amsterdam' live in Bruges. It's in (heavily accented) French but you don't need to speak the language to get it.