Soul Music 

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Soul Music

Documentaries

Factual: Life Stories

Music

Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact

BBC Radio 4 Extra

BBC Radio 4 LW

Soul Music: Series 19: Plaisir d'Amour / Can't Help Falling in Love With You:

Plaisir d'Amour/Can't Help Falling in Love with You

Plaisir d'Amour / Can't Help Falling in Love With You:

Series 19

BBC Radio 4 - Soul Music, Series 19, Plaisir d'Amour / Can't Help Falling in Love With You:

Marianne Faithfull recalls the French love song that went on to inspire Elvis's 60s hit.

Marianne Faithfull recalls the French love song that went on to inspire Elvis's 60s hit. From November 2014.

Marianne Faithfull recalls the classical French Love song which went on to inspire a 1960s hit record by Elvis Presley.  

'Plaisir d'Amour' somehow found its way through 18th century orchestration (Hector Berlioz) and 1960's folk revival, to an unexpected re-invention as Elvis’s 'I Can't' Help Falling in Love with You'.

Written in 1784 by Jean-Paul-Égide Martini, the song muses on the pleasures and pains of love and was inspired by a poem in Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian's novel 'Célestine'.

For 17 year old Marianne Faithfull it was a song of innocence, recorded in a tiny booth in London’s old Decca studios whilst happily pregnant with her first child. 

Meanwhile, author Julia Donaldson and husband Malcolm busked it on the streets of Paris. This was in the summer of 1969 and police hid in alleyways, still fearful of students following the 1968 riots.

Inspired by Elvis, West Point Military Academy Freshman Andrew Scott learnt to pick the tune on guitar – helping him win the heart of his wife. For Henry and Christine Wallace, it summed everything up "It was what I was looking for, someone to share my life and the words 'take my whole life too was in tune with what I wanted'. 

Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact

Producer: Nicola Humphries

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2014.

Soul Music: Series 19

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Soul Music

Series 19

Plaisir d'Amour / Can't Help Falling in Love With You:

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4