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The strange and surprising story of the song "Non, Je ne Regrette Rien"

The strange and surprising story of the song "Non, Je ne Regrette Rien"

By: Ivan Hewett / The Daily Telegraph
Translation: Telegrafi.com

If any song deserves to be called "iconic", it is this song Non, You are in Regrette Rien [No, I don't regret anything] – composed by Charles Dumont [1929-2024], who died [on November 18] aged 95. But iconic for what, exactly? A simple answer would be: the singer who made that song famous, Édith Piaf [1915-1963]. She herself was an icon of that unique, precious and now extinct form of French folk song known as chanson [chanson].

When Dumont and his lyricist, Michel Vaucaire, visited the famous singer in October 1960, it was their third attempt to convince her to sing one of their songs. Not surprisingly, Piaf had previously ignored both unknown authors. The 45-year-old star was at the peak of her career and, no doubt, overwhelmed by many well-known and aspiring authors. He had just sold all the tickets for two concerts in Carnegie [Carnegie Hall] and had completed a triumphant international tour. But her health was deteriorating and she passed out twice on stage from pancreatitis and jaundice. The media, pessimistic about its chances of survival, had called that tour the "suicide tour".


On that day in 1960, Piaf was in a bad mood and almost drove Dumont and Vaucaire away. But he softened, and after listening to the song five or six times, he was amazed. "She said it was magnificent, wonderful. That it was made for him. That it was she herself. That it would be her resurrection," Dumont recalled.

Piaf obviously had a lot to regret or not regret. She fell from one lover to another without a second thought, was addicted to alcohol and morphine and had survived five car accidents, which were symbolic of the way she lived.

But she was adored for that very special French quality that combined the good and the bad of the art world. Surrealists admired her, while she was adored by literary figures who had a taste for folk art. The greatest of them, Jean Cocteau, actually passed away the day after Piaf – in October 1963; some say from a broken heart. Piaf herself denied any deep feelings in love. "I'm a simple person who likes flowers and love stories," she once declared, but the depth of her songs suggests that this statement amounts to feigned naivete [faux-naiveté], more than a true innocence.

It is true that, on paper, this song itself is simple. Her harmony doesn't fit an aria from an opera by Rossini, not until the final cadenza, when, just for a moment, a Broadway-style sheen bursts through the string instruments over the music. The simplicity of the music leaves all the attention on Piaf – which is exactly where it should be.

The timing of the song's release, coming at a time of great upheaval in French politics and society, certainly gave it a special effect. French politics was deeply polarized between left and right, and the country was mired in a bloody war with its colony, Algeria. In October 1961, Paris police killed up to 300 Algerian protesters. Three years earlier, in 1958, General De Gaulle had been forced to return from retirement to "save the country". Even he might have declared—reflecting on a lifetime devoted to the glory of France—that he had nothing to regret.

The song was an instant success and launched the career of Dumont, who went on to create 30 songs for Piaf and other French chanson stars, including Charles Aznavour. Three years later, Piaf passed away from her multiple illnesses, giving the song a new meaning – and not just for the French, who found it hard to believe she was dead ("she's not dead, she's just away", wrote a grieving journalist). Unlike her previous songs, rooted in harsh French realism, this song, along with several others like La Vie en Rose, quickly managed to spread globally.

Since Piaf's death, the song has been performed many times, in many languages, by artists such as Shirley Bassey, Elaine Paige, Italian singer Dalida and others. The song received dubious honor when it was quoted by Norman Lamont in 1992, when Britain left the European Exchange Mechanism, while it has been used on the soundtracks of many films, including Intolerable Cruelty by the Coen Brothers and Inception by Christopher Nolan, where the song plays a key role. (It serves as a "kick" that wakes the characters from their dreamlike states, while the film's composer, Hans Zimmer, included numerous references to the song in his score.)

It is certain that many fans of the song, if not most of them, do not understand the words - but, they definitely understand the message of the song. Piaf's ecstatic and wistful interpretation speaks to anyone who took risks – or wanted to take risks. /Telegraph/

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NO, I REGRET NOTHING

Text: Michel Vaucaire
Translated by: Çlirim Lazaj

No, but for nothing
No, I don't regret anything
Not even for the good that has been done to me
Not for the worse
Exactly the same!

No, but for nothing
No, I don't regret anything
It's paid, deleted, forgotten
It's not too late for the past!

With my memories
I lit the fire
My pains, my pleasures
I don't need them anymore!

I deleted the loves
And all their whispers
Deleted forever
I start over

No, but for nothing
No, I don't regret anything
Not even for the good that has been done to me
Not for the worse
Exactly the same

No, but for nothing
No, I don't regret anything
That my life, that my joys
Today starts with you