Charles Dumont, composer of “Non, je ne regrette rien”, by Edith Piaf, has died

The songwriter and performer Charles Dumont, composer of No, I don’t regret anything, by Edith Piaf, died on the night of Sunday November 17 to Monday November 18 in Paris at the age of 95, following a long illness, his partner announced to Agence France-Presse (AFP). On X, the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, saluted the memory of“a sacred monster of French song”.

The career of this trained trumpeter took a major turn when he convinced the star Edith Piaf to perform one of his compositions. It was in 1956 that the notes of what would become one of the best-known French songs in the world emerged from the piano of Charles Dumont, then a 27-year-old little-known musician. But the singer is not convinced. “Piaf had already fired me three times, I didn’t want to see her again”Charles Dumont told AFP in 2018. “But Michel Vaucaire, who wrote the lyrics, convinced me to try again in 1960. When she learned that I would be there, she screamed, demanding that the meeting be canceled. »

“We still showed up at his home. She let us in. I played the piece on the piano. And… we never left each other again”he related. “At that time, she was at her worst and this title brought her resurrection. » No, I don’t regret anything has since become an unforgettable standard of La Môme, known throughout the world.

Then began a collaboration lasting several years, until Piaf’s death in 1963, which would give rise to more than 30 pieces, including My God, The Flonflons of the ball or The Lovers. “My mother gave birth to me but Edith Piaf brought me into the world”said the singer and pianist born in Cahors on March 26, 1929. “Without her, I would never have done everything I did, neither as a composer nor as a singer”he assured during an interview with AFP in 2015.

Throughout his nearly sixty-year career, Charles Dumont also collaborated with Dalida and Tino Rossi and converted to a crooner at the end of the 1960s, abandoning his protest songs. He then had a series of albums in which the theme of love was central. The disk A woman earned him the Académie Charles-Cros prize in 1973.

Charles Dumont also worked with Barbra Streisand. “It was fate that kicked me in the butt. A publisher advised me to offer him one of my compositions. I went to New York. I played it on a piano in his dressing room on Broadway (…). She told me: “I like it a lot. I’ll make the record. Goodbye, young man.” » The Wallsung in French on side A, and its English version titled I’ve Been Hereon side B, appear on number 8^e star album, My name is Barbrapublished in 1966.

His last appearance on stage dates back to 2019 at the Théâtre de la tour Eiffel. “When you come back in front of an audience, who comes to see you as they did twenty, thirty or forty years ago and gives you the same welcome, then they give you back your 20 years”he said.