Ne Me Quitte Pas

A lot of singers tend to have a particular song that he or she is associated with.  For me, I've noticed it has been Ne Me Quitte Pas.  I find it a complete honor to be associated with this song.  In my opinion, there have been quite a few other Vietnamese singers who have recorded fantastic renditions of this song.  I am quite flattered to be considered among the singers whose names are linked to this classic love song.

When I first became truly engrossed with this song was after I heard Bach Yen's rendition on her album, Souvenir.  I had always liked this song in the past and had also enjoyed countless other versions recorded by the likes of other artists such as Don Ho, Ngoc Lan and Carol Kim.  It had also been one of the many songs I often had performed on stage at my live shows.  But after hearing Bach Yen being interviewed on the radio by Viet Dzung one day where she was plugging her latest CD, I was then really taken aback.  Something about what she had said about how a singer must really have gone through such pain and agony in his or her love life in order to sing this song with enough feeling.  Since I happened to be experiencing some personal sadness at the time with a heartbreak in my own life, that was what had prompted me to record this song for my first album.  

After Sy Dan had finished the arrangements for this song, my first intentions were to record it in all three languages:  French, English and Vietnamese.   After a few takes at Cong Truc's studio, I was still dissatisfied.  That was when I realized that I wasn't that crazy about the English lyrics that had been written for the English version, If You Go Away.  I started to listen more to Jacques Brel's original version and began to finally appreciate just how powerful his performance of the song was.  The original French lyrics were indeed deeper and way more heartfelt than the lyrics written in English.  And since Pham Duy's lyrics were written based on translation of the lyrics in English, the same could be said with the Vietnamese lyrics.  That's when I decided to re-record the song without the English version, and only in French and Vietnamese.  I then turned to Alan Nguyen to finish out the recording for this song.  I must say, I am forever indebted to Alan Nguyen.  He had helped me so much through the production of the album, Tiec Nho, and particularly with this song.  He is simply amazing.  He coached me step by step with this song.  I really couldn't have done it without him.  

After three weeks, I finally finished recording Ne Me Quitte Pas.  Before the album was released, I was already happy to hear that my two most difficult critics other than myself, Anh Tu and Julie Quang, were pleased with my recording of Ne Me Quitte Pas.  During the week before the album was finally out in the market, I had sent a copy to Pham Long of Little Saigon Radio.  After he played it, I remember him making a comment of how this was a rather difficult song to sing and how he was really impressed that a young singer such as myself was able to give such a heartfelt delivery.  A few days after that I had heard from Bien Tinh Productions that my recorded version of Ne Me Quitte Pas had been one of the most requested songs on both Little Saigon Radio on 1480 AM and Radio Saigon Cali Hai Ngoai on 106.3 FM.  And then to have Viet Dzung write an article on Hon Viet Magazine praising about the song and my recorded version of it, I was just overwhelmed with excitement and truly flattered.  

Since then, Ne Me Quitte Pas has been one of my most requested songs from audience members at my live shows.  I really enjoy singing this song.  It just never gets old for me.  I still find it an honor to hear how fans have associated my name with this song.  Afterall, it is one of my favorite love songs of all time.

Thien Phu