Jackie

Jacques Brel and Gerard Jouannest wrote La chanson de Jacky in 1965, and Brel recorded it on 2 November that year for his 1966 album Ces gens-la. Mort Shuman translated it into English. His version was also used in the off-Broadway revue Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, which opened on 22 January 1968.

Walker released it as a single on Philips in 1967. John Franz produced it, Angela Morley arranged and conducted it, and Peter Knight arranged its B-side, The Plague. It spent nine weeks on the UK chart and peaked at number 22 in January 1968. It also opens Scott 2. Songfacts describes the narrator as a drug-using daydreamer, and the BBC kept the record off mainstream radio and television over its sexual and drug references. It was performed on Frankie Howerd's programme Howerd's Hour instead. The B-side, The Plague, was written by Scott Engel. Pitchfork notes that the BBC banned the single and that Scott 2 went to number one when it followed.

Walker told the story of discovering Brel through a German waitress at the Playboy Club on Park Lane, and said Brel's voice was like a hurricane blowing through the room.

Covers

Peter Straker recorded it in 1977, Momus did it as Nicky in 1986, and Marc Almond took it to number 17 in the UK in 1991. The upload in the hypersongs web is a user-posted upload of the recording.