"Non, Je ne Regrette Rien" ("No, I Regret Nothing") was composed in 1956 by Charles Dumont with lyrics by Michel Vaucaire. This song, which Harrison Smith of the Washington Post called the “sonic equivalent of the Eiffel Tower or the fresh-baked baguette” came about in 1960 by a confluence of happenstance and persistence that led to one of the most remarkable incidents in “chanson” history. It provided a jolt of rejuvenation to Piaf’s flagging health and a triumphant comeback boost to her slumping career as well as a launchpad for composer Charles Dumont and a financial bailout for the stumbling Olympia music hall in Paris. Seldom has one song achieved so much for so many. David Looseley recounts the story in his biography, "Edith Piaf: A Cutural History."
Charles Dumont
Dumont was dejected by Piaf’s serial rejections of other songs. His older Swiss friend, lyricist Michel Vaucaire, convinced him to try again. At the time, Dumont was a little-known 31-year old musician and trumpeter. Lyricist Michel Vaucaire was married to singer Cora Vaucaire, the first person to record “Les feuilles mortes.” Cora’s nickname (“la dame blanche de Saint-Germain-des-Prés”) distinguished her from Juliette Greco who was referred to as “La dame noire” because of her black men’s attire.
In late October 1960 Dumont and Vaucaire knocked on Piaf’s door at the Blvd Lannes in Paris. It shortly became evident that Piaf had tried to cancel their meeting but they never got the memo. Piaf was at the top of her game at the time but had been in badly failing health for 3 years and was on her last legs. Her performances and tours were constantly interrupted by medical crises. Effectively, she was retired. Nevertheless, she was the essence of grit despite the cumulative effects of a debilitating succession of amorous affairs, addiction to alcohol and morphine, a series of 5 car crashes and the death 11 years before of her lover Marcel Cerdan. The song’s lyrics resonated with aspects of her life and Dumont played it for her several times. At the end of the session, she said: “cette chanson va faire le tour du monde” (“This song will conquer the world.”). As Dumont said later: “My mother gave birth to me, but Edith Piaf brought me into the world.”
Piaf & Dumont leaving Olympia
Piaf loved the song and the following month she recorded it and performed live on December 29 at a gala performance for a 3-month run at the Olympia concert hall in Paris that ended with 22 curtain calls. Attendance at the official premier included Louis Armstrong, Alain Delon, Georges Brassens, Paul Newman, Duke Ellington, Claude Chabrol and many other celebrities. The song spent 7 weeks atop the French singles chart and had a vibrant “second life” in other languages, radio and TV commercials, and movies. Dumont went on to write 30 songs for Piaf and became a singer himself, with a final stage appearance in 2019. He passed away at the age of 95 in November 2024.
The song, like Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” in 1969, became an anthem of self-affirmation that some people find convenient to invoke in defense of their actions, including those of the French Foreign Legion. Piaf dedicated the song to the French Foreign Legion’s First Foreign Parachute Regiment, which failed a revolt in April 1961 against President deGaulle. The sanctioned Legionnaires sang a variant of the song while interned and left their barracks singing it. A part of Legion heritage, it is still sung on parades.
Unlike Sinatra’s simple valediction and retrospective justification of his life path, however, the climax of Piaf’s song depicts a way forward: a new love grants permission to jettison her past because “Ma vie, mes joies / Aujourd’hui, ça commence avec toi” (“My life, My joys / Today, starts with you”). Like “La vie en Rose” in 1946, “Je ne regrette rien” pays tribute to the power of love by discarding the past and viewing life through rose-colored glasses.
Barely over 2 minutes long, the song has appeared in many TV commercials, scripts and movies for its affirmative message and its association with France. These include Bull Durham (1988), Doris Dörrie's film Nobody Loves Me (1994), Babe: Pig in the City (1998); Bertolucci's The Dreamers (2003), the Coen Brothers' Intolerable Cruelty (2003), and Christopher Nolan’s Inception (2010) starring Marion Cotillard and Leonardo di Caprio. In that film’s focus on memory, guilt and regret, the song played a key role as a “kick” that knocks characters out of their dream states to another reality. Hans Zimmer wove numerous references to it into his score. He revealed that “all the music in the score is subdivisions and multiplications of the tempo of the Edith Piaf track.” The entire soundtrack originates from “Je ne regrette rien” and relies not on a direct excerpt but on an ultra-slow manipulation of the song.
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Non, rien de rien Non, je ne regrette rien Ni le bien qu’on m’a fait Ni le mal; tout ça m’est bien égal! Non, rien de rien Non, je ne regrette rien C’est payé, balayé, oublié Je m’en fous du passé! Avec mes souvenirs J’ai allumé le feu Mes chagrins, mes plaisirs Je n’ai plus besoin d’eux! Balayés les amours Et tous leurs trémolos Balayés pour toujours Je repars à zéro Non, rien de rien Non, je ne regrette rien Ni le bien qu’on m’a fait Ni le mal; tout ça m’est bien égal! Non, rien de rien Non, je ne regrette rien Car ma vie, car mes joies Aujourd’hui, ça commence avec toi! |
No, absolutely nothing No, I regret nothing Neither the good things that happened Nor the bad, it’s all the same to me. No, absolutely nothing No! I regret nothing It’s paid for, swept away, forgotten, I don’t care about the past! With my memories I lit the fire My troubles, my pleasures I don’t need them anymore! Loves swept away And all their drama Swept away forever I restart from zero No, absolutely nothing No, I regret nothing Neither the good things that have happened Nor the bad things, it’s all the same to me. No, absolutely nothing No, I regret nothing Because my life, because my joys Today, that begins with you! |
No Regret?
Identifying official English language adaptations online for “Je ne regrette rien” is difficult.
Songwriter Hal David, a close partner of composer Burt Bacharach and younger brother of Mack David who adapted Piaf’s “La vie en rose,” wrote an English adaptation called “No Regret” in 1961. Curiously, only Shirley Bassey seems to have recorded the song using his adaptation. Even curiouser, Edith Piaf herself recorded an English version with lyrics different from Hal David’s that is accompanied by Robert Chauvigny’s orchestra (Piaf’s accompanist since 1944) but carries no identification with respect to authorship. It may well be that Piaf's English rendition captured the market. She is as good in English as she is in French although it's a little strange at first to hear her in English.
Songwriter Hal David, a close partner of composer Burt Bacharach and younger brother of Mack David who adapted Piaf’s “La vie en rose,” wrote an English adaptation called “No Regret” in 1961. Curiously, only Shirley Bassey seems to have recorded the song using his adaptation. Even curiouser, Edith Piaf herself recorded an English version with lyrics different from Hal David’s that is accompanied by Robert Chauvigny’s orchestra (Piaf’s accompanist since 1944) but carries no identification with respect to authorship. It may well be that Piaf's English rendition captured the market. She is as good in English as she is in French although it's a little strange at first to hear her in English.
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No, no regret No, I will have no regret All the things that went wrong For at last I have learned to be strong No, no regret No, I will have no regret For the grief doesn't last It is gone I've forgotten the past And the memories I had I no longer desire Both the good and the bad I had lighted a fire |
And I feel in my heart That a seed has been sewn It is something quite new It's like nothing I've known No no regret No I will have no regret All the things That went wrong For at Last I have learned to be strong No regret no regret I will have no regret For this seed that is new It's the love that is growing for you |
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