JUST as Al Stewart changed the title of his best-known song, so did Poppleton Live festival headliner Ralph McTell.

Streets Of London, his number two hit in 1974, began life as Streets Of Paris. “The truth of the song is that I had the tune when I was in Paris, at the end of a relationship that had imploded,” says Ralph, who will play a sold-out Upper Poppleton Community Centre, near York, on May 9.

“I went over with some friends and busked and met someone who took me ‘out of the basement on to the ground floor’, and I was just amazed at what the guitar was capable of. I learnt to play a picking guitar style and I came up with the tune when I was living on the street, playing for my supper.

“I identified with other people in Paris, where you get these single men sleeping over hot street grills, so I started writing lyrics to Streets Of Paris.”

What happened, Ralph?

“I didn’t get far, so I adapted it to Streets Of London, as my home town is Croydon,” he says. “My theme was that some people don’t really ‘live’ in the city the way that tramps do, but strangely no one ever picked up on what the song was about and who featured in it, but it has come to have a universality that I’m at a loss to explain.

“Last year it was translated into Serbo-Croat. There are French, German, versions; all the Scandinavian countries have versions, and now there are so many versions that even my publishing company doesn’t even know how many there are. Apparently, there are about 1,000 versions on YouTube, which is wonderful.”

Ralph may be at a loss to explain its growing universal appeal over the years, but he does say: “It’s a handy little number that if you play the chords in the right order, it will be Streets Of London. They’re even singing it at school assemblies now.”

Ralph will be performing in Poppleton on his 70th birthday tour at the invitation of festival co-organiser John Watterson.

“I was an old friend of Jake Thackray, and John does his own Jake Thackray show, doing wonderful versions of Jake’s material,” he says, explaining their connection.

Streets Of London will inevitably be in Ralph’s set, but where? “I’ll probably do it somewhere in the middle in Poppleton; I never do it at the end.”

• Ralph McTell plays Poppleton Live on May 9, 7.30pm, sold out. For full festival details and tickets, visit poppletonlive.co.uk