True Colors

True Colors

Author: BBC Radio 4 May 2, 2018 Duration: 27:52

"Your true colors...are beautiful, like a rainbow..."

Billy Steinberg's lyrics were originally inspired by his mother but his song writing partner Tom Kelly recognised its universal appeal.

With a slight re-write, it became the song that Cyndi Lauper made famous the world over.

Growing up in a small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Ken Kidd could never truly be himself.

Watching Cyndi Lauper perform True Colors on MTV showed him that it was OK to be his authentic self. Years later he describes his pride at watching the Rainbow Flag being raised above the Stonewall National Monument as he and other LGBTQ campaigners sang that same song.

Lesley Pyne learnt to sing 'True Colors' with her local choir.

It's a song that resonated with her more than she had ever expected. After six attempts at IVF, Lesley had had to come to terms with the knowledge that she wouldn't be able to have children. It wasn't easy. It has taken years of digging deep to work through the grief but now she helps others to find their true colours and firmly believes that they can be beautiful, like a rainbow.

And in 1999, Caroline Paige, a jet and helicopter navigator in the Royal Air Force, became the first ever openly serving transgender officer in the British military.

She rose above the extraordinary challenges placed before her to show her 'True Colors' whilst serving her country on the front line in the war on terror.

Featuring songwriter Billy Steinberg and music from The Rock Choir

Producer: Nicola Humphries

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2018.


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
I Wonder as I Wander [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:49
As Christmas approaches, Soul Music leads you through Advent with the Appalachian carol "I Wonder as I Wander".Written by American folklorist and singer John Jacob Niles, its origins come from a song fragment collected i…
Lean On Me by Bill Withers [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:16
An enduring classic which delivers a message of support and friendship. Never more so than in 2020 when Lean On Me by Bill Withers was the musical backdrop to the Covid crisis in the UK, and at Black Lives Matter protest…
I Will Survive [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:54
"At first I was afraid, I was petrified"... From a breakup to a shipwreck, emotional true stories of what Gloria Gaynor's iconic disco anthem I Will Survive means to different people around the world.A woman sets out to…
Harvest Moon [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:53
It's a love song about growing old. Neil Young's Harvest Moon released in 1992 is a nod to 1970s country rock.It's loved by music blogger Alyson Young. It's also a grown up song about love says singer-songwriter Ricky Ro…
Pavane Pour Une Infante Défunte by Maurice Ravel [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:50
Ravel's beautiful Pavane For A Dead Princess touches many people. While it is not actually about a dead princess it does evoke a sense loss. For Carla van Raay it symbolises the loss of innocence she experienced after se…
Feeling Good [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:09
The surprising history behind a track made famous by Nina Simone. Feeling Good was written for a now obscure musical and originally performed by Cy Grant, the first black man to appear regularly on British TV. Cy Grant's…
Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:51
Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay was written whilst Otis Redding was reflecting on his life on Sausalito Bay, California, in the summer of 1967. Its upbeat, laidback melody belies the loneliness of the lyrics. In December…
Days [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:45
“It’s a goodbye song, but it’s also an inspirational song, It could also mean a new beginning" - Ray DaviesWritten by Ray Davies and released by the Kinks in 1968 'Days' had a very different sound to the rest of their re…
Toto's Africa [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:50
Released in 1982, Toto's soft-rock anthem has become an unlikely viral smash-hit.Africa is a song that has changed lives, helped to raise thousands of pounds for charity and provided an unexpected musical cornerstone in…
Coventry Carol [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:33
Performed as part of the mystery plays, the 'Coventry Carol' is from the Pageant of the Shearman and Taylors and tells the story of the Slaughter of The Innocents. A copy of the manuscript survived a fire in Birmingham L…