Ne Me Quitte Pas

Ne Me Quitte Pas

Author: BBC Radio 4 June 11, 2022 Duration: 27:50

Ne Me Quitte Pas is a song about begging someone not to go - and of promising the world to them, if they'll only stay.

From Haiti to New York, Provence to Glasgow - in versions by Nina Simone, Dusty Springfield and Scott Walker - we hear stories of what Jacques Brel's song has meant to people around the world.

With contributions from France Brel, Johane Celestin, Alastair Campbell, Brendan McGeever, Peter Hawkins and Malaika Kegode.

Producer: Mair Bosworth

A BBC Audio production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in June 2022.


There’s a certain piece of music that, when you hear it, seems to stop time. It might be a melody from your childhood, a song that played at a pivotal moment, or a composition that simply reaches into your chest and grips your heart. Soul Music, from BBC Radio 4, is built around that very phenomenon. This isn’t a program about genres or charts; it’s an intimate exploration of why specific pieces of music carry such profound emotional weight. Each episode focuses on a single, iconic work-from classical adagios to folk ballads, from film scores to pop anthems. The podcast weaves together the voices of people whose lives have been indelibly marked by that music: listeners share personal, often moving stories of grief, joy, love, and remembrance, while composers and performers might shed light on the piece’s creation. You’ll hear the music itself, of course, but framed in a way that reveals its deeper resonance in human experience. It’s a quiet, thoughtful series that reminds us how soundtracks our inner lives. Tuning into this podcast feels like being part of a conversation about the invisible threads that connect us all through notes and rhythms, exploring how a sequence of sounds can become a vessel for collective memory and feeling.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Soul Music
Podcast Episodes
Jerusalem [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:27
"Jerusalem" has become a quintessentially middle-class and very English song, but it's also held in the hearts and memories of people from different backgrounds and cultures. There is a bit of cricket - commentator Jonat…
A Change Is Gonna Come, by Sam Cooke [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:54
Sam Cooke's A Change Is Gonna Come has become synonymous with the American Civil Rights Movement.It was released in December 1964, two weeks after the influential singer was shot dead in Los Angeles. Contributors include…
Feed the Birds [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:15
'Feed The Birds' was written for the film Mary Poppins by Richard and Robert Sherman.
Mozart's Requiem [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:36
How Mozart's Requiem, written when he was dying, has touched and changed people's lives. Crime writer Val McDermid recalls how this music helped her after the loss of her father. Hypnotist Athanasios Komianos recounts ho…
The Way You Look Tonight [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:25
'The Way You Look Tonight' was written by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields for the 1936 film 'Swing Time'. Sung by Fred Astaire to Ginger Rogers while she was washing her hair, the song won an Oscar. It has been recorded b…
Sukiyaki (Ue o Muite Arukou) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:31
Memories of a prison camp in the Arizona desert, a tsunami and a plane crash are stirred by the bittersweet Japanese song Sukiyaki, a huge global hit of the 1960s.Originally released in Japan with the title 'Ue o Muite A…
Bring Him Home [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:27
Bring Him Home is a beautiful and moving prayer-in-song that has developed meaning and identity outside of the hit musical, from Les Miserables.What has been its impact? Celebrated tenor, Alfie Boe has sung it many times…
Fairytale of New York [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:22
The tragi-comic tale of love gone sour and shattered dreams eloquently depicted in the Christmas classic Fairytale of New York is the focus of this edition of Soul Music. James Fearnley, pianist with The Pogues recounts…
Nimrod [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:03
Edward Elgar's incomparable Nimrod, and the part it plays in people's lives, is explored this week:Composed as part of the Enigma Variations in the latter part of the 19th century, Nimrod was inspired by Elgar's friend a…

«1...678910