Our Tune

Our Tune is a long-standing feature/segment on British radio presented by broadcaster Simon Bates. Having begun by at least 1979 it was originally part of his mid-morning show on BBC Radio 1, where it aired daily throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. The feature has more recently been heard on Smooth Radio, where Bates presented the Breakfast Show from 2011 to 2014. An edition of Our Tune typically features a personal story submitted by a listener together with a song that has significance to the person or situation. Many of these stories, which are read out over Nino Rota's Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet have a tragic narrative such as illness or death, although not all end on such an unhappy note.

The feature's sentimental tone has earned it criticism from some, including a columnist at

Our Tune continues to be referenced in popular culture, while similar features involving listeners' stories have been employed by other presenters, including Radio 1's Mike Read and Jo Whiley. US singer Jenn Bostic became popular in Britain after Bates played one of her songs on an edition of Our Tune in 2012. According to a programme aired on Smooth Radio in 2013 to celebrate the feature's 33rd anniversary, the most requested song for Our Tune is Whitney Houston's version of I Will Always Love You. Our Tune was last aired by Smooth Radio on 27 September 2013. The feature made a brief return in October 2015 as part of a series of programmes about relationships in later life that aired on BBC Local Radio.

History

Simon Bates joined BBC Radio 1 in 1976, where he presented the network's mid-morning show from 14 November 1977.^[1][2] He has said that the Our Tune slot first appeared on the programme on 21 July 1980,^[a] although the Radio Times makes reference to it as early as 14 February 1979.^[3][4][5] It was intended to run for a few weeks.^[6] Bates had the idea for the feature after reading a letter from one of his listeners who had enjoyed a holiday romance during a two-week trip to Bournemouth which ended after both parties returned home, and her love interest joined the armed forces. She asked Bates to play the song they had danced to during the vacation, and he read the story out one morning shortly before 11.00am. Bates then invited listeners to write to him with their personal stories and was quickly inundated with letters. He would then read these out on air. The segment quickly proved to be popular and was extended, soon becoming a regular mid-morning fixture for listeners, with people in offices, factories and schools often stopping work to hear the stories.^[6][7] Indeed, at its peak Our Tune attracted 11 million listeners on a daily basis.^[8] The name Our Tune was decided by listeners who would often request a song that was described by them as "our tune".^[6]

Each morning at around 11.00am, Bates would read out one of the stories while sentimental music played in the background. At first this would be any music of the genre that Bates could find, but after he played Nino Rota's theme to Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film Romeo and Juliet this became the official music of Our Tune.^[6] The stories tended to be about relationships to begin with, but as the feature grew in popularity Bates started to receive letters on other issues. Our Tune is perhaps best remembered for those stories that had a tragic theme, typically opening with a happy courtship followed by a disaster such as illness or death.^[9] However, they were not always heart-rending tales, and many had happy conclusions.^[10] The feature would close with a song or piece of music chosen by the correspondent,^[11] usually something that had significance to those involved in the story. It might be a song that a couple had danced to at their wedding or a favourite hit enjoyed by someone who had died in tragic circumstances.

In 1982 Russell Kyle of

Bates presented a one-off special of Our Tune across GCap Media stations on Valentine's Day 2006, and The Very Best of Our Tune, a CD featuring some of the most popular songs requested from the slot's Radio 1 days was released.^[9]

On 17 August 2010, it was announced that from January 2011 Simon Bates would take over as host of the Breakfast Show on

After leaving Smooth Bates subsequently joined BBC Radio Devon, presenting the breakfast show from January 2015.^[24] Our Tune continues to appear. In May 2015 Bates produced a humorous version of the feature concerning the supposedly frayed relationship between England cricketer Kevin Pietersen and then newly appointed England director Andrew Strauss after Pietersen discovered he was no longer being considered for international selection.^[25] In October 2015 Our Tune made a brief return to national radio when it was aired as part of a week long feature on BBC Local Radio concerning sex and relationships in later life. The segment was included as part of the Love in Later Life series airing on Mark Forrest's evening show from 19–23 October.^[26]

Legacy

The idea of reading out listeners' stories about relationships or significant life events is one that has been often used on radio, and there have been a number of similar features following the Our Tune format. However, none has endured to the same extent. In the 1980s the broadcaster

in June 2012 Sam Wollaston of The Guardian compared the storyline from an episode of the BBC romantic drama True Love unfavourably with an edition of Our Tune, particularly as it was overlaid with sentimental music.^[31] In September 2012 The Daily Telegraph reported that a track created by users of the Poke website which remixed a speech by British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg had been compared to an edition of Our Tune because of its confessional nature. The original speech was an apology for Clegg's promise to block an increase in University tuition fees before the 2010 general election, a pledge on which he later reneged as a member of the post-election coalition government.^[32] In his review of the 2013 film Labor Day, which concerns a depressed single mother living in New England, Daily Express columnist Henry Fitzherbert compared the first part of the story to an edition of Our Tune, but adds "What you never heard Bates say, however, was 'and then she met Frank...a convicted killer on the run'".^[33]

The Our Tune strand brought the US singer Jenn Bostic to the attention of listeners in the UK after Bates played her song "Jealous of the Angels" following a listener's story in 2012. The song became popular with listeners to Smooth and other radio networks, as well as on the internet. It was released as a single in December 2012 and reached number one in the UK singer-songwriter charts. In a 2008 interview with The Daily Telegraph's Lucy Cavendish, the singer Duffy recalled listening to Our Tune as a girl.^[34] She was also quoted on the topic in the Western Mail. "I spent most of my time listening to the radio and used to listen to the Our Tune slot with Simon Bates and I always cried at the end. I used to practise What Becomes of the Broken Hearted."^[35] The BBC Asian Network presenter Sonia Deol made a tongue-in-cheek reference to the feature while discussing her formative years for a 2006 interview with The Independent. "Hearing sob stories when you're 10 forces you to grow up faster, doesn't it?"^[36] A 2015 Daily Telegraph article highlighting the 50 top love songs of the 1980s described the 1985 Kool & the Gang ballad "Cherish" as a "bittersweet and surprisingly metaphysical ballad [that] must be the epitome of Simon Bates' long-lost Our Tune.".^[37]

Notes

References