"Non, je ne regrette rien" (French pronunciation: [nɔ̃ ʒə nə ʁəɡʁɛtə ʁjɛ̃], meaning "No, I regret nothing") is a French song composed by Charles Dumont, with lyrics by Michel Vaucaire. It was written in 1956, and is best known throughÉdith Piaf's 1960 recording, which spent seven weeks atop the French Singles & Airplay Reviews chart.[1]
Piaf dedicated her recording of the song to the French Foreign Legion.[2] At the time of the recording, France was engaged in a military conflict, the Algerian War (1954–1962), and the 1st REP (1st Foreign Parachute Regiment) — which backed a temporary putsch of 1961 by the French military against president Charles de Gaulle and the civilian leadership of Algeria — adopted the song when their resistance was broken. The leadership of the Regiment was arrested and tried but the non-commissioned officers, corporals and Legionnaires were assigned to other Foreign Legion formations. They left the barracks singing the song, which has now become part of the French Foreign Legion heritage and is sung when they are on parade.[3]
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Lyrics[edit][]
The rhymes of the words echo the rhythm of the melody following typical French meter, where words almost always stress the final syllable, in iambic and anapestic compositions. A literal translation is unable to maintain the internal harmony of lyric and tune, since English words usually stress an earlier syllable and are most often suited to trochaic (DA-da-DA-da) and dactylic (DA-da-da-DA-da-da) meter. A variety of English language versions have been recorded. Discussion of their merits is ongoing.[4] The superlative, all-encompassing object arousing the transcendent emotions of the lover singing the song, and the use of passive reflexive verb (ni le bien qu'on m'a fait / ni le mal) to describe good and bad perceived by a person can be rendered (not the good that one did to me / nor the bad) using the absolute impersonal pronoun.[5]
Other recordings[edit][]
The song has been recorded by many other performers, including :
- Shirley Bassey in 1965, (reaching #39 on the UK charts) and on the album Love Songs.
- Bad Boys Blue in 1989, on album "The Fifth" recorded an English version titled No Regrets.
- The rock band Half Man Half Biscuit recorded a 1991 English version titled No Regrets.
- La Toya Jackson in her 1992 Moulin Rouge revue Formidable.
- Emmylou Harris contributed an English version to the 1994 multi-artist "Tribute to Edith Piaf" album.
- Elaine Paige on 1994 album Piaf, released to coincide with her portrayal of the lead character in the play of the same name.
- Brazilian singer Cássia Eller in 2001 Acústico MTV album.
- Vicky Leandros on her 2010 album "Zeitlos" (Timeless) sung in German with the title "Nein, ich bereue nichts" .
- Cajun band Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys on their 2011 album Grand Isle.
- Rammstein included the words to a chorus to their song "Frühling in Paris" on their album Liebe ist für alle da.
- Frances McDormand sang the song during a scene of Madagascar 3.
- Mireille Mathieu sang the song on "Stars 90" in 1993.
- Dina Garipova at the singing competition The Voice - in December 2012[6]
Other languages[edit][]
- "Ne oplakujem" (Croatian) by Tereza Kesovija in 1962.
- "Ne oplakujem" (Croatian) by Ana Štefok in 1964.
- "Ne, ne žalim ni za čim" (Serbian) by Lola Novaković in 1964.
In popular culture[edit][]
- In the United Kingdom, the song was at one time associated with the former Conservative Party Chancellor of the Exchequer, Norman Lamont, who quoted the song's title to sum up his political career.[7]
- The song was adopted as "a personal anthem" by the former Dutch colonial soldier Johan Cornelis Princen (better known as Poncke Princen).[8]
- Édith Piaf's 1960 recording of the song is sampled in the track "Nique La Police" by Cut Killer which is features in the 1995 French film La Haine.[9]
- The song is featured in many movies, including Bull Durham (1988); Doris Dörrie's German film Keiner liebt mich (1994), titled Nobody Loves Me in English; Babe: Pig in the City (1998); Bernardo Bertolucci's film The Dreamers(2003); the Coen Brothers' film Intolerable Cruelty; the 2005 film Monamour; the 2006 film Piaf Her story Her songs starring Raquel Bitton; the French criminal biopic Mesrine; and the British animated WWII film Valiant.
- It is featured extensively in Christopher Nolan's 2010 film Inception.[10]
- In 2012's Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, the first minute of the song was sung by the antagonist, Captain Chantel DuBois, to inspire her subordinates.
- The film La Vie en rose - which is a biography of the singer - saves this song for last.