Soul Music

By BBC Radio 4

What's Soul Music about?

Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact

4.7

133 ratings

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Introducing Legend: The Jon...

12.07.2023

Joni Mitchell’s songs have soundtracked our lives and her pioneering work changed music forever. Jesca Hoop explores her extraordinary story to reveal the life behind the legend. In the first episode, we hear how young Joni loves to watch the ...

Soul Music episodes:

12.07.2023 Introducing Legend: The Joni Mitchell Story Joni Mitchell’s songs have soundtracked our lives and her pioneering work changed music forever. Jesca Hoop explores her extraordinary story to reveal the life behind the legend. In the first episode, we hear how young Joni loves to watch the ...
11.11.2023 Songs My Mother Taught Me Antonin Dvorak wrote his Gypsy Songs in 1880. He was passionate about the folk music of his native Bohemia and set a poem by Czech poet Adolf Heyduk to music. Songs My Mother Taught Me is the fourth song in ...
11.04.2023 Fire and Rain James Taylor's song of suicide, loneliness and addiction somehow remains hopeful and uplifting, even as people experience their own dark times. Holly Sinclair was driving through a Missouri winter to see her brother, in hospital after a suicide attempt, when ...
10.28.2023 Pata Pata Miriam Makeba recorded 'Pata Pata' in 1967 with the help of American producer Jerry Ragovoy. It became a huge hit and Miriam Makeba used newfound fame to speak the injustices of apartheid. Her records were banned and South Africa and ...
10.21.2023 Defying Gravity from Wicked Wicked the musical is 20 years old in 2023. The story of the Wizard of Oz told from the witches' perspective examines themes of difference, power and alienation. The so called Wicked Witch of the West Elphaba born with green ...
10.14.2023 I Will Always Love You Written by Dolly Parton... sent stratospheric by Whitney Houston; I Will Always Love You is a song that has a worldwide fanbase reflected by the diverse memories shared here: Nagham Kewifati tells how her mother, Mayada Bseliss, had a huge ...
07.05.2023 Fast Car 'Fast Car' is one of Tracy Chapman's biggest hits, with listeners from around the world finding striking connections with their own lives in the song's story. It was released in April 1988, and that summer, the American singer-songwriter performed it ...
06.24.2023 I Say a Little Prayer for You When Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David wrote I Say A Little Prayer For You in 1967 the war in Vietnam was raging. The song was intended as message of support for the soldiers there. It was originally recorded by ...
06.17.2023 Ghost Town 'Ghost Town' was recorded by British two-tone band The Specials as a comment on urban decay and social unrest. It was released in June 1981 as riots were springing up around the UK and with the help of an iconic ...
06.10.2023 I Only Have Eyes For You When I Only Have Eyes For You first emerged in 1934 it was a jaunty ditty written by Harry Dubin and Al Warren for the movie "Dames". But it gained huge popularity when the 1950s doo wop group The Flamingos ...
12.24.2022 I Believe in Father Christmas Some people say it's a protest song about the commercialisation of Christmas. Others that it's anti-religious. I Believe In Father Christmas is about neither, although lyricist Peter Sinfield concedes that it does include a touch of cynicism but says ultimately ...
12.17.2022 Nessun Dorma 'None shall sleep'. Jon Christos watched the Italia 90 World Cup with his Dad and says that the live performance of 'Nessun Dorma' by Pavarotti at the tournament was the only time he ever saw his Dad cry. Beatrice Venezia ...
12.10.2022 Killing Me Softly with His Song "Strumming my pain with his fingers... Singing my life with his words..." Killing Me Softly with His Song is a song about the pleasure and embarrassment of being seen. The feeling that someone has reached into your deepest, most private ...
12.03.2022 Into My Arms by Nick Cave "I don't believe in an interventionist God" has to be one of the most original opening lines to a song. It's one that resonates with the people in this programme who take comfort from Nick Cave's love song. Els from ...
11.26.2022 Chervona Kalyna Powerful stories linked to this beautiful and stirring Ukrainian folk song which inspired Pink Floyd to reform so they could release their own version, 'Hey Hey Rise Up', alongside Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Boombox. Chervona Kalyna is a clarion call with ...
06.18.2022 Bruch's Violin Concerto A Violin Concerto in G minor, Opus 26, became the best-known work of the German composer Max Bruch. Originally written in 1866 it went through many revisions before finally being completed in 1867. It was performed extensively but having sold ...
06.11.2022 Ne Me Quitte Pas Ne Me Quitte Pas is a song about begging someone not to go; 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 ...
05.30.2022 Purple Rain "I never meant to cause you any sorrow, I never meant to cause you any pain..." True stories of what Prince's epic ballad means to different people around the world, from the very first jam in 1983 to the global ...
05.28.2022 Young Hearts Run Free by Candi Staton Candi Staton and others celebrate this 1970's disco classic which delivers an optimistic message. Written by David Crawford and released in 1976 this is the kind of song that feels like a carefree celebration, something to lose yourself in on ...
12.18.2021 A Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten In 1942, Benjamin Britten boarded the M.S. Axel Johnson, a Swedish cargo vessel, to make the journey home to England after three years in America. During the voyage, the ship stopped at Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Britten came across a ...
12.11.2021 U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For More gospel than rock, this 1987 hit has inspired great change in people's lives and created memories for music lovers across the world. Brendan McManus was a corporate high flyer with an inexplicable sense that his life needed to change ...
12.04.2021 Song to the Siren "Long afloat in shipless oceans": So begins Song To The Siren whose lyrics were inspired by Homer's Odyssey and the story of the Sirens who lured unwitting sailors to their deaths on the rocks. There is something so ancient and ...
11.27.2021 Unfinished Sympathy Personal stories inspired by Massive Attack's breakthrough single. Featuring the vocals of Shara Nelson, the track together with its iconic video would help catapult this band from Bristol onto the global stage. Stories include the photographer Giles Duley whose work ...
11.20.2021 Some Enchanted Evening from South Pacific Ezio Pinza was the first person to sing Some Enchanted Evening when South Pacific opened on Broadway in 1949. His granddaughter, Sarah Goodyear, recounts his extraordinary life story: from international opera singer, to political prisoner, then a star of musical ...
11.13.2021 Ain't No Mountain High Enough Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell made Ain't No Mountain High Enough a hit for Motown in 1967. Diana Ross followed suit in 1970 as a solo artist with her version of the song. It has a place in people's hearts ...
08.04.2021 Take Me Home, Country Roads "Country roads, take me home To the place I belong" Written by Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert with and for their friend John Denver, the song went on to be covered by Ray Charles, Toots and the Maytals, Olivia Newton ...
07.28.2021 The Parting Glass "So fill to me the parting glass... Goodnight and joy be to you all." A popular toast at the end of an evening or a heartfelt farewell to a departed or deceased person? The Parting Glass has become synonymous with ...
07.21.2021 We've Only Just Begun The Carpenters - brother and sister duo Richard and Karen - were one of the most popular groups of the 1970s. His outstanding compositions and her stunning vocals created several massive hits including We've Only Just Begun. Originally written as ...
07.14.2021 Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat This disco classic tells a powerful story: that of a young, gay man leaving his homophobic small town for the freedom of the big city. Released in 1984, Smalltown Boy continues to resonate and has become an anthem for the ...
02.12.2021 Sunshine on Leith "While I'm worth my room on this earth......" Sunshine on Leith was released in 1988 but didn't become the big hit The Proclaimers had hoped for. However it has endured and become an anthem of love and a celebration of ...
01.09.2021 Life on Mars? - David Bowie Musicians and fans talk about the wistful beauty and the philosophical intent of David Bowie's song, ‘Life on Mars?’. Life on Mars was released on David Bowie's Hunky Dory album in 1971. Two years later it came out as a ...
12.29.2020 Once In A Lifetime Stories from people about how ‘Once In A Lifetime’, Talking Heads' existential hit from 1980, touched their lives. Talking Heads emerged out of the post punk scene of the late 1970s. 'Once In A Lifetime' is the iconic single taken ...
12.22.2020 I Wonder as I Wander 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 in 1933. Mysterious, inspiring, this ...
12.08.2020 Lean On Me by Bill Withers 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 ...
08.10.2020 I Will Survive "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 become ...
07.22.2020 Pavane Pour Une Infante Défunte by Maurice Ravel 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 sexual abuse ...
07.15.2020 Feeling Good 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 daughter, Samantha ...
01.22.2020 Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay 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 of the ...
01.15.2020 Days “It’s a goodbye song, but it’s also an inspirational song, It could also mean a new beginning" - Ray Davies Written by Ray Davies and released by the Kinks in 1968 'Days' had a very different sound to the rest ...
01.08.2020 Toto's Africa 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 a critically acclaimed play. Ralf ...
12.25.2019 Coventry Carol 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 Library ...
12.18.2019 We Are Family We Are Family written by Nile Rodgers and performed by the Sledge Sisters Kathy, Kim, Debbie and Joni was released in 1978 at the height of disco's popularity. Kim Sledge says it has become the anthem for diverse groups of ...
12.11.2019 The Boxer - Simon & Garfunkel People who connect directly with the lyrics and have a deep personal connection to Simon & Garfunkel's masterpiece 'The Boxer' discuss what it means to them. Seamus McDonagh is a former boxer. He describes the tumultuous time he had during ...
07.31.2019 Farewell to Stromness Personal stories about Farewell to Stromness, by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Written in 1980 as a protest against uranium mining in Orkney, the music has touched and changed people's lives. The Orkney landscape which inspired Max's music is described by ...
07.24.2019 Wind of Change “I follow the Moskva, down to Gorky Park… listening to the wind of change.” The German rock band Scorpions’ lead singer Klaus Meine was inspired to write Wind of Change at a rock festival in Moscow in the summer of ...
07.17.2019 Streets of London by Ralph McTell Ralph McTell and others discuss a song that was written for a heroin addict, became an anthem against homelessness, and transcended the folk genre to become an enduring classic. Ralph McTell says he’s thought constantly about the “blip in my ...
07.10.2019 Back to Black Amy Winehouse died in July 2011 aged just 27. 'Back to Black' - the title track of her second and final album - is a torch song to tragic love, addiction and loss. People who loved her and her music ...
01.23.2019 Let the River Run The story of how a song from a classic 1980s movie became an inspirational anthem for a 21st-century generation. Carly Simon’s ‘Let the River Run’ was originally conceived as the title track for the 1988 movie ‘Working Girl. It went ...
01.17.2019 Smile Charlie Chaplin wrote the music for 'Smile' in 1935 for the film 'Modern Times', but the lyrics were only added nearly 30 years later. Chris Philips tells the story of how his grandfather was inspired to write the words when ...
01.09.2019 Schubert’s B-Flat Piano Sonata D960 The B-Flat Piano Sonata D960, which Schubert completed two months before his death, in 1828, is a vast and complex work. It’s the last of a triptych of piano sonatas that Schubert wrote, possibly in response to the death of ...

Older episodes

Soul Music

What's Soul Music about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Soul Music episodes:

Introducing Legend: The Joni Mitchell Story

Songs My Mother Taught Me

Fire and Rain

Pata Pata

Defying Gravity from Wicked

I Will Always Love You

Fast Car

I Say a Little Prayer for You

Ghost Town

I Only Have Eyes For You

I Believe in Father Christmas

Nessun Dorma

Killing Me Softly with His Song

Into My Arms by Nick Cave

Chervona Kalyna

Bruch's Violin Concerto

Ne Me Quitte Pas

Purple Rain

Young Hearts Run Free by Candi Staton

A Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten

U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Song to the Siren

Unfinished Sympathy

Some Enchanted Evening from South Pacific

Ain't No Mountain High Enough

Take Me Home, Country Roads

The Parting Glass

We've Only Just Begun

Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat

Sunshine on Leith

Life on Mars? - David Bowie

Once In A Lifetime

I Wonder as I Wander

Lean On Me by Bill Withers

I Will Survive

Pavane Pour Une Infante Défunte by Maurice Ravel

Feeling Good

Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay

Days

Toto's Africa

Coventry Carol

We Are Family

The Boxer - Simon & Garfunkel

Farewell to Stromness

Wind of Change

Streets of London by Ralph McTell

Back to Black

Let the River Run

Smile

Schubert’s B-Flat Piano Sonata D960