Soul Music

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 Schmidt is the Artistic Director of Ndlovu Youth Choir which is made up of young people from the poorest parts of South Africa. Incredibly, the choir made it to the final of America's Got Talent, one of the biggest entertainment shows in the world. Ralf's exuberant, irresistible and uniquely African arrangement of Toto's Africa was their stand-out performance. (Brief extract of AGT (c) Fremantle USA and Syco Entertainment)

Michael Savage (aka DJ Michael Vinyl) of Prime Cuts record shop in Bristol, staged what could be considered a night of torture when he played Africa non-stop for twelve hours at a club. As Mike and Olivia Perry recall, this was to raise money for the Bristol based charity, Temwa, which operates in Malawi. They expected a handful of people to turn up, but the event had worldwide attention and was a huge success.

Mike Massé's life was completely changed following his release on YouTube of what many consider to be one of the best Africa cover-versions ever recorded. The main photo is of Mike Massé (photo credit: Jim Mimna).

David Greig is the Artistic Director of the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh; an esteemed playwright with intellectual clout. So, why did he include Africa in one of his plays? Well, he nearly didn't, but then he saw the light.

And, Abigail Gardner, a reader in music at the University of Gloucestershire, explains why Africa - originally a US No. 1 for just a week in 1982 - has recently undergone a strange modern rebirth, making it one of the most streamed songs on the internet.

Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.

Producer: Karen Gregor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2020.

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 in 1879 by sheer chance. Musician Ian Pittaway describes seeing the play in the ruins of Coventry cathedral in the 1980s - the drama was so powerful it still moves him to tears.

The carol was sung on Christmas Day in 1940 in a live broadcast to the Empire just six weeks after the bombing of Coventry that destroyed the city's cathedral.

Journalist Donna Marmestein tells of how the carol transformed how she felt about loss in her family.

Composer and performer Tori Amos describes what inspired her cover version of the song. Amy Hanson from the Small Steps Charity talks about how much her mother loved the carol. The children from the school her charity supports in Kenya sing their version of the song.

Roxanne Burroughs explains about how her daughter Kaitlyn came to have the carol sung at her funeral.

The soloist is Samantha Lewis; early music is from The Night Watch; Reading Phoenix choir and Southern Voices sing the carol and the children's choir is from the Rehabilitation centre Immanuel Afrika in Nairobi, Kenya.

Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.

Producer: Sara Conkey

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Christmas Day 2019.

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 people around the world who come together on the dance floor to form a family.

Professor Tim Lawrence says disco at its best was an inclusive music movement that welcomed people of all races and genders, unlike rock music which in the early 1970s appealed to a predominantly white male audience.

We Are Family epitomised dance music's appeal to traditionally marginalised groups in the USA - African Americans, Latinos, women and gay men.

Listen to the stories of some of the people for whom the song is linked with some of the most significant experiences of their lives.

Produced by Maggie Ayre.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2019.

'The Boxer' is Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel's 1969 masterpiece.

People who have a deep personal connection with the song and its lyrics, discuss what it means to them.

Seamus McDonagh is a former boxer. He recalls his tumultuous time during and after his famous fight with Evander Holyfield in 1990. He also explains why he identifies closely with the song's lyrics.

Julie Nimoy is the daughter of Leonard Nimoy and co-producer of a film about the much-loved actor’s life story - 'Remembering Leonard Nimoy'. Best remembered as Star Trek’s Mr Spock, Leonard’s favourite song was ‘The Boxer’. Julie describes exactly what it meant to him both throughout his life, and in its closing moments.

Gary Edward Jones is a singer-songwriter who for years rejected comparisons made of him to Paul Simon. Eventually, he embraced the likeness and his life changed after developing a show called 'Something About Simon - The Paul Simon Story'.

Dave Mason is an amateur guitarist who has found deep meaning in The Boxer; meaning that has changed and grown as he has.

Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.

Producer: Karen Gregor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2019.

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 his partner Tim Morrison.

We hear from Rosalind Newton, for whom the music provided peace after the death of her grandmother.

Conductor Christopher Warren-Green recalls his performance of the music at the wedding of the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall.

In Stromness we discover a community coming together to face the threat of uranium mining.

Guitarist Sean Shibe and writer Ivan Hewett consider why this simple piece is so subtle and affective.

And we hear from Jeana Leslie how the music, with its quiet melancholy inspired by folk music, has became traditional , and was a favourite for Peter Maxwell Davies to perform to visitors at his remote island home.

Producer: Melvin Rickarby

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2019.

“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 1989. Politics were rapidly shifting in the Soviet Union at the time as a result of Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms.

Recalling the peaceful yet revolutionary atmosphere at the concerts, Klaus said “there was a whole new generation of Russian kids that said the Cold War would be over soon - we could literally feel the world changing in front of our eyes”.

No one had any idea that the Berlin wall would come down only a few months later. Wind of Change was released in 1990, and has since become an unofficial anthem for the end of the Cold War and the reunification of Germany in 1991. The power ballad is one the best-selling singles in history, and popular all over the world.

Featuring interviews with lead singer of the Scorpions Klaus Meine, Russian rock musician Stas Namin, and true stories of what the song means to people who lived in the former USSR.

Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.

Producer: Sophie Anton

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2019.

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 says he’s thought constantly about the “blip in my graph” that is Streets of London. People say to him “50 years. One hit. You think you’d have given up by now”.

But, Ralph says, that’s not why he writes songs. And, of course, he’s written many. Many that he considers far better than Streets of London. But this remains his best known, best loved, and most played track. It was first recorded 50 years ago, in 1969, for his album Spiral Staircase although it wasn’t released as a single until 1974.

Taking part in Soul Music, alongside Ralph, with their stories and memories connected to Streets of London, are:

Jerry Playle, a music producer. His first ever public performance as a teenage guitarist was of Streets of London. The guitar part went well, but when he opened his mouth to sing, he realised - to his horror - that he couldn't...

Gwen Ever, a DJ. He became homeless in the 1980s. It’s the unlikely punk version of Streets of London by the Anti Nowhere League that reminds him of this time.

Maria Bentley-Dingwall, the daughter of Iris Bentley. Iris was the sister of Derek Bentley who was hanged for a murder he did not commit. Iris spent her life campaigning for his conviction to be quashed.

Ralph McTell grew up knowing this story, became a friend of the family, wrote a song about the case, and sang Streets of London at Iris Bentley’s funeral.

Producer: Karen Gregor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2019.

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 talk about how she helped them cope with their own struggles.

Lesley Jamison is now a successful writer, but at 27 she was an alcoholic. She stopped drinking the same year that Amy died. Lesley reflects on how her own life could have followed the same path had she gone further into the darkness or the black of drinking and self-destruction.

Daisy Buchanan tells her story of addictive love and how Back to Black helped her break free. Umaru Saidu was a vulnerable teenager with mental health issues who lost a dear childhood friend when he was 17. He later trained at the Amy's Yard programme and is grateful for the inspiration she gave him.

As a young teenager Amy Charles too identified with the pain expressed in Back to Black and says it helped her deal with depression brought on by a spinal injury.

Donald Brackett is the author of Back to Black: Amy Winehouse's Only Masterpiece and believes performing the song may have become traumatic for her in the end as it forced her to relive the emotional pain.

Elizabeth Kesses was visiting her terminally ill father at the same hospital where Amy Winehouse was being treated. She recalls seeing her there and hoping she would recover. Sadly it was not to be.

But these stories reveal a legacy that goes beyond the music.

Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2019.

The story of how a song from a classic 1980’s 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 on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song. It also went on to win the affection of people around the world.

Initially thought of as a ‘hymn for New York’, ‘Let the River Run’ encapsulates the spirit of striving for a better life.

As Carly Simon puts it herself, “I wanted it to be large, I wanted it to be vast – it’s about bringing forth a common desire into the world”.

In more recent years it has become an anthem for Woman's Rights Movements and global initiatives aimed at making a better life for all.

Featuring interviews with:

* Carly Simon

Music from The Resistance Revival Chorus.

Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.

Producer: Nicola Humphries

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2019.

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 he left his father at boarding school.

Gemma Lowery talks about how her son Bradley loved the song.

Writer Bryony Rheam describes why she associates the song with her grandmother.

Marine Lucas remembers flying to Michael Jackson's memorial on hearing the news of his death.

And author Bob Williams remembers when his father died, how his mother sat on the floor listening to the Nat King Cole version - crying when he came home from school.

Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.

Producer: Sara Conkey

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2019.