The Amsterdam jukebox: ten songs about the city and their stories

Imagine a jukebox with room for ten Amsterdam singles. Which would you choose? Writer Jan Vriend made a suggestion in his book about Amsterdam. We looked into the stories behind those ten classics, and they are often more surprising than you would think.

The ten records

A note first: you will not find most of these songs in any chart. The Dutch Top 40 only started in 1965, when many Jordaan classics had been sung around the city for years. Their popularity lived in the pubs, on the radio and in the street.

1. Geef mij maar Amsterdam (Johnny Jordaan, 1955)

The ultimate homesick song (Give me Amsterdam any day) is actually mostly about Paris. An Amsterdam card club goes to the French capital for a week, the baker gets vertigo on the Eiffel Tower and has to be rescued by the butcher. Lyricist Pi Vèriss is said to have written it in about ten minutes. Near the Elandsgracht, Johnny Jordaan now stands in bronze on the square named after him.

2. Alle duiven op de Dam (Gert en Hermien, 1972)

A true Amsterdam singalong (All the pigeons on the Dam), sung by a duo from the province of Overijssel. It reached number 23 in the Top 40 and was their last hit. Their biggest success, remarkably, was a German-language song that stood at number 7 in the very first Top 40 of 2 January 1965.

3. Tulpen uit Amsterdam (Herman Emmink, 1956)

The most famous Amsterdam song comes from Germany. Klaus Günter Neumann wrote 'Tulpen aus Amsterdam' in 1953 after visiting the Dutch bulb fields. The composer 'Ralf Arnie' did not exist: it was a pseudonym of Dieter Rasch. Read more in our story about Tulips from Amsterdam.

4. Amsterdam huilt (Rika Jansen, 1964)

Kees Manders wrote this song about the destroyed Jewish quarter around the Weesperstraat for Zwarte Riek. The irony of this list: she and Manders preferred not to have this very song in pub jukeboxes, fearing it would be bawled along to by drunks and lose its meaning.

5. O mooie Westertoren (Willy Alberti, 1964)

The song (Oh beautiful Westertoren) is much older than Alberti's version. Louis Davids and Margie Morris wrote it for the 1917 play Bleeke Bet. Alberti put it on the B-side of 'Zondag in Amsterdam' in 1964 and released it as an A-side in 1969. Fun detail: Willy Alberti and Johnny Jordaan were cousins.

6. Hee Amsterdam (Drukwerk, 1983)

Drukwerk started in 1978 as a protest band against the closure of an Amsterdam youth centre and at first sang left-wing songs, including ones against nuclear power. 'Hee Amsterdam' reached number 15 in the Top 40 and later became a regular singalong for Ajax supporters.

7. Het is stil in Amsterdam (Ramses Shaffy, 1966)

Shaffy's signature song (It is quiet in Amsterdam) appeared on the album Ramses II. He wrote it while walking along the water between his home on the Kalkmarkt at the time and the Montelbaanstoren. It never made the Top 40, but in 2025 it reached the final of the Parool newspaper's vote for the most beautiful Amsterdam song.

8. Bij ons in de Jordaan (Johnny Jordaan, 1955)

This was actually the B-side of Johnny Jordaan's first single, 'De parel van de Jordaan'. But when broadcaster AVRO played it, the flip side became the big hit. Broadcaster VARA found his music too common and would not play it.

9. Aan de Amsterdamse grachten (Wim Sonneveld, 1962)

Pieter Goemans wrote it in 1949 as a medical student, under a pseudonym, because his father, a diplomat, did not want the family name linked to entertainment. He could not write music himself. The first released recording was by Hans and Nan Boskamp in 1956; Wim Sonneveld's version became the best known. In 2008 Goemans got a bridge on the Prinsengracht named after him, and in 2025 Parool readers voted his song the most beautiful about Amsterdam.

10. Thorbeckeplein (Robert Long, 1977)

Anyone who thinks this song is about the square's nightlife has not been listening. It is about a chance meeting on the Thorbeckeplein that grows into a secret love affair with a married man. It was never a single, but the album Levenslang started with a print run of 750 copies and eventually sold some 250,000.

On Tuesdays the Westertoren carillon plays Aan de Amsterdamse grachten every half hour.

The city's own jukebox

And what is missing?

Ten slots is far too few, of course. Where is Hazes? Where is 'Amsterdam' by Kris De Bruyne, which only became famous thirty years later thanks to a cheese commercial? Read about it in our story about that song, or about the foreign originals behind Hazes' hits. And which song would you put in the jukebox?