Singer Brel's album causes upset

Fans of the late Belgian singer Jacques Brel are unhappy with the release of five of his songs in a new box set.

The songs were recorded for a planned double-album in 1977, only a year before his death aged 49.

Brel considered the songs, including Mai 1940 and La Cathedrale, unfinished and left them off his final release.

"I think he would have been furious about this sort of exhumation and its stench of commercialism," said Eddie Barclay, head of Brel's record label.

The songs - also including Sans Exigences, Avec Elegance and L'amour est Mort - are released on a 16-disc box set retrospective of the singer's career which hit shops on Tuesday.

Lyrics from the previously-unreleased songs had been published in France in a book called Tout Brel (All Things Brel).

Final album

Mr Barclay said Brel had asked him to swear the songs would never be released. Prior to the box set's release, the songs could only be heard at Brussels' Jacques Brel Foundation.

"Obviously, the family is looking to make some money without respecting the word of a dead relative," he told French newspaper Le Figaro.

Brel had started recording songs for a planned double album in 1977, but ended up with 17 songs, which was not enough.

He later dropped five tracks and released a single album instead, which reportedly sold more than 650,000 on its first day of release.

Brel died in 1978 from complications from lung cancer.

Best known for writing the song that became the English-translated Seasons in the Sun, and was an influence on artists such as David Bowie and Leonard Cohen.