Soul Music

BBC Radio 4

4.8 (296)
Music Commentary
Updated Biweekly

Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.

41m ago

Wild Mountain Thyme

"Oh the Summer time is coming. And the trees are sweetly blooming" Wild Mountain Thyme also known as Will Ye Go Lassie Go? is a much loved song around the world with its rousing chorus "And we'll all go together". It was featured recently on the soundtrack to the Oscar winning film "Sinners" introducing it to a whole new audience. This programme explores the origin and lasting popularity of the song. Belfast singer and piper Francis McPeake IV recounts the story of his great-grandfather Francis McPeake I writing the song in the 1940s recalling a fragment of an old song he'd heard 'Will ye go lassie go?' that may or may not have come from another song "The Braes of Baquhidder" based on a poem by Robert Tannahill with the line "Let us go lassie go". Charlie Gorman is a musician from Paisley, Tannahill's home town. Charlie plays in hospitals and care homes and tells the moving story of being asked to play in a stroke unit where a seriously ill patient underwent a form of recovery while singing along to Wild Mountain Thyme. Scots singer Fiona Kennedy has happy memories of her childhood home in Glasgow. As the daughter of two famous Scottish singers Callum Kennedy and Anne Gillies she recalls hearing the strains of Wild Mountain Thyme from her bedroom during her parents' legendary parties where well known guests such as Andy Stewart and Billy Connolly would sing it on repeat. For Kevin Fry being at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC when singer Jacob Collier performed it with the National Symphony Orchestra turning the audience into a choir transformed a song he already loved into an emotional experience of human connection. And Nicole Lazarus pays tribute to a remarkable man - Graham Peddie under whose guardianship at Tanners Hatch Youth Hostel in Surrey many often disadvantaged young people thrived. Nicole started going to Tanners as an awkward teenager and recounts the joy of the monthly folk nights singing "Graham's song" Wild Mountain Thyme. Francis McPeake says its strength is its universal message of love and hope. Producer: Maggie Ayre
Aug 22

Sweet Caroline

Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline was released in 1969, but it wasn't until the 1990s that it became a theme song for the Boston Red Sox, spreading to other other countries and sports, including the England football team. Danielle Capalbo is a Red Sox fan who explains where it began, and Lionesses fans Donna and Liz take up the story. Meanwhile in Essex, dance teacher Meryl Kiddier has found the perfect song to help Parkinson's patients with movement and mood. Cathy Hill describes how Sweet Caroline is a catalyst for changing the way she thinks about her condition. and Peter Lovatt, AKA Dr Dance, explains the science behind it all. And in Prestonpans, near Edinburgh, Agnes goes to a day care centre which is all about the singing and dancing. Sweet Caroline has become her theme song, and still gets her up and moving in her 90s. Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven
Aug 15

Rasputin by Boney M

Rasputin was a massive disco hit for the British-German Caribbean group Boney M in 1978. Nearly fifty years later it remains a much loved symbol of happiness and freedom for a a truly global audience. This edition of Soul Music features stories from Iran, Cameroon, India and of course Russia. Anahita Tishtar says Rasputin is a song that represents a golden age in Iran before the Islamic Revolution restricted Western music. It reminds subsequent generations of happier times when people were free to dance. Famil Ismailov recollects his wild dancing in the style of Bobby Farrell at teenage discos in the former Soviet Union. Boney M was one of the first Western music acts allowed in Russia. Eric Ngalle Charles heard the song on his sisters' cassette player as a small child in Cameroon. The song became significant to him a decade later when he was trafficked to Russia and ended up dancing on stage with Boney M at one of their many Russian concerts. Sweta Amit danced to it as toddler at her parents' dinner parties in Thailand. As a child from a conservative Indian family the song represents freedom and a way to banish stress. Rasputin on the violin and cello: the Scottish-Egyptian classical duo The Ayoub Sisters first heard it as children in the back of their surgeon father's car as he drove to the hospital to do his ward rounds. Later on they released a classical version of it. The original lead singer of Boney M Liz Mitchell says Rasputin has a sound and rhythm that incorporates so many different styles of music that people all around the world can identify with, and that it just makes people feel free and happy. Producer: Maggie Ayre
Jan 24

Make You Feel My Love

"When the rain is blowing in your face / And the whole world is on your case / I could offer you a warm embrace / To make you feel my love" Written by Bob Dylan for his Time Out of Mind album, 'Make You Feel My Love' went on to become a huge hit for Adele and has been covered by Billy Joel, Ane Brun and many more. With its promise of unfaltering love, we find out what the song means to different people around the world. It has inspired a translation into a 65,000 year old language and a choral version with the comfort of a psalm; it has soundtracked heartbreak and grief; and become a lullaby of parental love. Featuring music writer Annie Zaleski, musicians Ane Brun and Dyagula, organist and conductor Anna Lapwood, Howard Simons, Aly Halberstadt, and Adele's manager Jonathan Dickins. Produced by Mair Bosworth A BBC Audio production for BBC Radio 4
Jan 17

Cranes in the Sky by Solange

Marking 25 years of the award-winning series, Soul Music features songs from the last 25 years. “I tried to drink it away... I tried to run it away...” Solange’s hit song, written in 2008 and released eight years later, muses on themes of isolation, loneliness, and depression. She penned the lyrics to Raphael Saadiq’s instrumental in a Miami hotel room, gazing out at the cranes filling the skyline during the onset of the housing crisis and financial crash. Solange Knowles released her debut album in 2002 at the age of 16. This single appears on her third album, A Seat at the Table. She's the younger sister of Beyoncé. Featuring: Journalist Douglas Markowitz; music writer Kiana Fitzgerald; author of Why Solange Matters and Big Joanie guitarist Stephanie Phillips; and Rebecca McNeil. Producer: Eliza Lomas
Jan 10

Yellow by Coldplay

"Look at the stars, look how they shine for you..." True stories of what Yellow, one of Coldplay's most iconic songs, means to people 25 years on from its release. It's December 1999 and a relatively unknown band called Coldplay are midway through recording their debut studio album, Parachutes, at Rockfield Studios in Wales. The days are long, often working late into the evening. One night after a recording session, they step outside with their producer Ken, and look up to a sky full of stars. The rest, as they say, is history... Featuring, in order of appearance: Dylan Bode, musician and coma survivor Ken Nelson, music producer on Coldplay's Parachutes album Debs Wild, fan liaison for Coldplay and author of Life In Technicolor: A Celebration of Coldplay Neil Brand, composer, writer and broadcaster Katherine Ho, singer of the Mandarin version of Yellow for the film Crazy Rich Asians Producer: Becky Ripley
Jan 3

Porcelain by Moby

A song that was everywhere after it was released as a single in 2000. Moby's Porcelain has been used in films, TV and adverts yet remains a much loved melancholic downbeat electronic ballad. Reportedly written about the fragility of love after a break up it's a track that has a place in many people's hearts. The people featured are: Felicia Narhi aka DJ Damselfly Steve O'Brien Gyu Ola Mazzuca John E Roy Michael Weinhardt Producer: Maggie Ayre
12/27/2025

Soul Music at 25

This hour long special celebrates a quarter of a century of the programme and charts the course of a human life through pieces of music. Cerys Matthews introduces a compilation of some of the diverse pieces of music we've featured throughout the years - together with stories of the people whose lives have been changed by it. Everything from Satie's Gymnopedies and Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending to Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell and Computer Love by Kraftwerk. Stories of birth, childhood, adolescence, as well as the griefs and joys of adulthood are expressed through the music that shapes and sustains us through the emotional ups and downs of our lives' journeys. Producer: Maggie Ayre

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4.8

out of 5

296 Ratings

Pure joy

Jan 25

dmwlos

Nothing, absolutely nothing makes me happier than listening to this podcast.
Lovely podcast

10/06/2025

Futless24

So much music knowledge and impact in these stories of both the creators of the music and the regular people who it’s special to. To the makers of this show, thank you all. What you are doing is very special and gives hope in confusing times.
Incredible

04/15/2025

kjp2424johannes

This recurring series is incredible. Every episode is well presented, intriguing, can make you laugh and more often than not, cry. Its introduced me to new music and made me love some music I know even deeper. Outstanding show.
SOUL STIRRING ❤️

01/20/2025

Sugarboydej

I've been moved to years each episode I've listened to, just reflecting on the power music can have in people's lives. This podcast is equal parts music reportage but also personal diary entry and also in a sense archival - these pieces of music live on in the people that it affected and what a joy to feel that too. To see songs you'd always known in a different light. To learn something new about how it was made. To enjoy it anew.